Show no fear, feel no fear
by LunatiCat
Summary: An AU where Stevonnie never came to visit Lars, and Emerald is still battling to regain her beloved Sun Incinerator (Some Laremmy, Lars X Emerald, Emerlars whatever you wanna call it in future chapters)
1. Chapter 1

OFF COLORS!" Emerald shrieked.

Lars was getting used to this. This was the 56th transmission to date and all Emerald ever did was scream at them.

"Emerald's going to contact us again!" Padparadscha said.

"Thanks Padparadscha" Lars said.

"You off colors make me sick!" Emerald hissed. "I will catch you and I will shatter you a-"

The transmission cut out.

"And have a nice day." Lars said, leaning back in his chair. "Don't we need more fuel? Someone set a course for the nearest colony. If we're lucky we can taunt Emerald in person."

" Captain Lars." Rhodonite said. "I think you might be getting a little carried away with this Emerald thing. She's still dangerous-"

"Come on, have I let you down so far?" Lars asked cockily.

"Well...no but..."

"Don't worry, Emerald's not going to do anything while we have her ship. Trust me." Lars said.

Rhodonite seemed skeptical but nodded. "Alright then captain."

Emerald paced back and forth angrily. Those damn off colors! How dare they steal her ship, then taunt her! She was an emerald! She was The emerald. The diamonds trusted her and now those freaks of nature had ruined her reputation.

"AAAAAGH!" Emerald shrieked, kicking the control pannel.

The screen snapped on. Emerald jumped back. Yellow Pearl's snide face leered back at her.

"Hello Admiral." Yellow Pearl said. "I was just curious about how your "situation" was going."

Emerald scowled harder. She almost hated Yellow Pearl more then Lars.

"You are a pearl and have no right to be questioning me." she snapped.

"Maybe not but my diamond was wondering when the highly esteemed Emerald was going to get her ship back and crush those insignifigant off colors."

"Soon." Emerald said. "I almost have them in my clutches..."

"Almost isn't good enough." Yellow Pearl said. "Either it's them getting shattered, or you."

The transmission ended.

Emerald stood still. She had known she was pressed for time but this...

It was her or the off colors now. And the off colors weren't going to escape her again.

"Woah." Lars said, looking at the bust gem market place.

"It's the bazar." one of the Rhutiles said. "It's like the gem shopping center of the universe."

"Perfect." Lars said. "There are so many gems here it should be easy to get in and out without being spotted or recongized."

Lars had brought the Rhutiles and Paparadscha with him while Fluorite and Rhodonite waited on the Sun Incinerator just in case.

"Now where could we find fuel?" Lars asked, looking at the many shops.

"We're going to land in the bazar!" Paparadscha said cheerfully.

"Thank you Paparadscha." Lars said. "We'd better start looking."

"Perfect." Emerald said. She had thought the off colors would land here. "Alright." Emerald said, turning back to the group of rubies and amathysts she had gathered. "Half of you surround them, the other half of you go and take back the Incinerator. When you capture the captain bring him to me."

The gems saluted her and hurried off.

"Fuel fuel fuel." Lars said, scanning the tents. "Aha!" A tent with a green roof seemed to be selling fuel.

"The fuel is in the green tent!" Paparadscha said.

"Yep." Lars said. Now how do we steal some?"

"Captain, there are a lot of rubies here." a rhutile said nervously.

"There are a lot of amathysts too." said the other.

Lars nodded. That was a little strange. The amathysts were clearly trying too hard to act natural while keeping their eyes on Lars and his friends.

"Let's go." Lars said softly.

"There's a suspicious group of gems following us." Padparadscha said.

That settled it. Something was up. Lars motioned the three gems forward towards the fuel tent.

"We gotta make this quick ok?" Lars said. "Padparadscha pretend like you want to buy something while me and the Rhutiles steal some fuel out of the back."

Padparadscha stood in front of the tent smiling but not saying anything. The gem manning the station looked a little freaked out.

Flourite and Rhodonite were calmly awaiting orders if any came.

"Rhodonite." Flourite said slowly. "Something's...on...the...radar"

Rhodonite squinted at the screen. "Oh no! Rubies and amathysts! We have to call the captian! We have to-"

The Sun Incinerator rattled violently. The gems were trying to pry the door open.

"What...can...we...do?" Flourite asked?

"I think I have a plan. It's risky but..."

"Go go go!" Lars hissed as he and the rhutiles lifted up a canister of fuel. "Lift with your back! I mean your legs! Never mind!"

Suddenly Lars heard Padparascha speak up.

"I'm going to be a diversion while Captain Lars steals fuel!"

Great. Lars ran forward dragging the fuel and the rhutiles with him.

"PADPARADSCHA!" he yelled, scooping her up.

The trio ran and hid down an alley way.

"I'm going to mess up." Padparascha said softly.

"It's ok." Lars said. "I don't think anyone's following us."

"HEY!" a ruby yelled, jumping out of nowhere.

"GAAAH!" Lars yelled, jumping back. Did Emerald send the ruby?

"SHE FOUND US!" The ruby shrieked! "EMERALD HAS THE SHIP AND FLOURITE AND PEARL!"

"I...what?" Lars asked.

"CAPTAIN LARS THEY NEED YOU!" The ruby cried. Lars noticed her gem was on her navel like...

"Rhodonite?" Lars asked.

"Yes!" the ruby said. "That's me and Pearl! We unfused to I could sneak away and find you!"

"Emerald caught us?" Lars asked.

"A ruby is going to find us, but she's one of us! But Emerald has the Sun Incinerator!" Padparadscha said.

"Not for long." Lars growled.

Emerald smirked as the fusion and Pearl looked at her in horror...Pearl?

"When did they get a pearl?" she muttered. They didn't have one...

"YOU IDIOTS!" She shrieked. "DID ANY GEMS LEAVE THIS SHIP?"

"A ruby went to find you." An amathyst said.

" _Which_ ruby?"

"It was...I don't know." the amathyst said.

"YOU'RE WORTHLESS!" Emerald yelled. "I THOUGHT YOU COULD HANDLE THIS!"

the gems looked down.

"Oh, Emerald we can to better then your citrines, I DON'T THINK SO!" Emerald yelled. "Who said that, who said they could do better?"

As Emerald chewed out her army Flourite slowly reached over and turned on the radio that was linked to the one Lars had put in his gauge so he could communicate with the ship.

"-SHATTER ALL OF YOU STARTING WITH YOU!" Emerald's voice blasted into Lars's ear.

"GAAAH!"

"Flourite's going to turn on the radio so we can hear Emerald!" Padparadscha spoke up.

"Oh." Lars said, stopping mid freakout.

"PEARL!" the ruby yelled.

"It's not on comunitcation mode." Lars said to the hysterical ruby.

"We have to get back to her Emerald might-"

"Chill." Lars said. "We have time. Emerald loves yelling and I think she's only getting started. We got lucky. She brought rubies and amathysts. No offense" Lars said quickly.

The ruby was pacing back and forth, not listening.

"Ok. Padparadscha, I want you to tell us what's going on with the ship." Lars had found a pretty good use for Padparadscha. Even thought she could only predict the past, she could predict the past anywhere and could tell Lars what was going on at another location.

"Emerald's yelling at her guards. They let Ruby escape." Padparadscha said.

"Good, keep going." Lars said, running through the crowd. He had to get there in time.

Emerald massaged her temples. This was impossible. The giant fusion was taking forever to get on the Destiny Destroyer.

"Can't you make it go any faster!" Emerald yelled.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A voice yelled. Lars sprinted towards the ship at full speed.

Lars didn't really have a better idea, and Ruby needed a distraction to get to the pearl so he sped up...

"HEY!" Emerald yelled as Lars tackled her, knocking her to the ground. "GET OFF ME YOU OFF COLOR SCUM!"

"NO!" Lars yelled as the two struggled on the ground. Neither the other off colors or Emerald's army seemed to know what to do.

Emerald kicked Lars in the stomach and rolled to her feet.

Lars knew she would try to summon her weapon so he acted on another random impulse. He jumped up and pressed both hands over Emerald's gem.

The other gems gasped. Lars looked at them. They were all staring. One of the rhutile's mouths had fallen open.

Emerald's face had turned a dark shade of green. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

"RUN! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Lars yelled. Ruby dashed towards the ship. Flourite turned around and made her way back towards the ship, slightly faster.

"We're going to make it in time! Lars will tackle Emerald but she'll kick him off! Then Lars will..." Padparadscha made a sqeaking sound and slapped a hand over her mouth.

"What?" Lars asked.

"G-get him off!" Emerald said weakly.

"Huh?" Lars asked. An amathyst finally carefully pried Lars off Emerald. She quickly dropped him. "Don't you dare touch my gem you creep!"

Lars didn't wait around for long, he got up and dashed towards the ship.

"Engines, go, shields, go!" Lars commanded. His crew quickly followed orders.

"NO!" Emerald yelled, recovering. "NO NO NO NO NO!"

"Bingo bongo!" Lars cheered.

"NO!" Emerald shrieked as the Sun incinerator sped away.

"Ok, what's up?" Lars asked. Every crew member had been sneaking looks at him.

"Lars...I didn't know you..." Rhodonite trailed off. Ruby and Pearl had re-fused.

"I what?" Lars asked.

"You're a toucher." one of the rhutiles muttered.

"A what? That sounds gross." Lars said.

Flourite looked at the other gems. "I don't...think...he...understands"

"Oh." Rhodonite said, blushing. "W-well Lars, a toucher is someone who...touches other gem's gemstones."

"And that's bad why?" Lars asked.

The off colors looked apalled.

"Lars, that's really..." Rhodonite looked around for help. "Do humans...touch each other?"

"Ew gross. I mean if their in a relationship yeah but to go around groping...oh. Wait" Lars said. "Does that mean I...EW!"

"You didn't know what you were doing?" one of the rhutiles said laughing.

"The look on Emerald's face." the other said, joining in.

"Captain Lars"

"Space's most feared off color toucher."

The two collapsed into laughter.

"COULD SOMEONE MAYBE EXPLAIN GEM STUFF LIKE THAT TO ME?"

"Why? So you can do it right next time?" A rhutile asked, grinning.

"NO!" Lars yelled, blushing.

"Lars didn't know what he was doing! So it's ok!" Padparadscha said. "And now we can joke about it!"

"Too soon." Lars grumbled.

"Sorry Captain." Rhodonite said, wiping tears from her eyes. "This feels good though. Ever since I...separated I've been feeling a little weird."

"HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?" Lars asked.

The off colors collapsed into laughter.

"WHERE'S THAT CAPTAIN RESPECT NOW HUH?"

The off colors stopped after that but every now and then one of them started giggling.

"Explain." Emerald said in a scarily soft voice, pointing to a holo-picture of Lars grabbing her gem.

An amathyst was shoved to the front of group.

"It was you?" Emerald asked.

The amathyst nodded slowly.

"WHY DID YOU THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA!" Emerald yelled. "IF THE DIAMONDS SEE THAT I'M...I'M RUINED!"

The amathyst looked down shamefully.

"AND LOOK AT THE FACE I'M MAKING! I LOOK LIKE I'M ENJOYING IT!" Emerald screamed.

The amathyst smiled slowly.

"Think that's funny do you?" Emerald asked. "Well if you think touching is so great then you should enjoy this."

Emerald slammed her fist into the amathyst's gem. The amathyst looked up in surprise as her gem shattered. The other amathyst watched in horror.

"Someone find a pearl to clean up this mess." Emerald snapped, reatreating into the cockpit.

Alone at last. Emerald had never really liked other gems. She was either too good for them, or had to serve them.

Her one real friend was the Sun Incinterator, and now she didn't even have that.

How dare those off colors challenge her! And now she was even more humiliated!

She quickly wiped a tear from her eye. No weakness. She was an emerald. Even if she would never live this down.

It was officially catch these off colors or die trying.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well this is just perfect." Lars muttered. They were stopped at two identical looking planets. One of the planets Lars knew was a safe, non gem inhabited planet and the other was a poisonus deadly gem colony.

"Padparadscha?" Lars asked. Maybe this one time he would be lucky and get a future vision.

"Sorry captain, no visons." She said.

"Alright then." Lars said, gathering all his courage. "I didn't want it to come to this but it seems I have no choice." he marched up to the window.

The rest of the off colors waited with baited breath.

"Eenie meenie miney moe" Lars said, pointing back and forth. "Catch a tiger by the toe."

"Captain Lars will cast a magic spell that will tell us where to go!" Padparadscha cheered.

"It's not magic, if it hollars let it...dang it I lost track! Eenie meenie miney moe..."

"This is all you have?" Emerald demanded, glaring at the agate. She had gone looking for a replacement ship, and there was nothing that could even get close to comparing with the Sun Incinerator.

The agate nodded and left Emerald to choose a ship.

Emerald carefully walked around all the ships. She had given up on guards to help her and she needed a ship that was fast enough to catch the Incinerator. She had decided that she was doing this on her own.

Emerald knocked on the side of a rusty blue ship that looked a bit like the Incinerator. She could probably fix this ship up the way she fixed the incinerator.

Emerald started coughing as she pried the door open. The inside was even worse and the technology was no where near as sophisticated as the Incinerator's.

She had a lot to do if she was going to get the incinerator back.

"...If he hollars let him go, eenie meenie miney moe!" Lars finished.

"Do we go to the planet on the left?" Rhodonite asked.

"...maybe." Lars said. "The spell isn't always right." he didn't have the heart to tell the gems that there was no magic.

"Only one way to find out." a rhutile said.

"Yeah." Lars said. "Well, there is one more thing I could try. Eenie meenie miney moe!" He said dramatically. "Catch a tiger by the toe! If he hollars let it go! My mother picks the very best one and you are not it!"

"Lars's mother is going to pick the planet for us!" Padparadscha cheered.

"Sure." Lars said. "Left planet it is then." In reality he had been stalling for time.

Emerald smacked the dashboard of the ship. It had been the fastest repair job she had ever done, and all the rust was making her eyes water. The ship was fast thankfully and as long as she didn't take any hits she should be fine.

"Come on." She muttered, squinting at the screen. "Where are you-AHA!"

The Sun Incinerator appeared blinking on the screen. They weren't even moving. Perfect! All Emerald had to do now was force them to land on the gem colony where her citrines were waiting.

Lars squinted at the planets, trying to tell a difference. The off colors had decided that eenie meenie miney moe probably wasn't the best idea.

"This is impossible!" Lars yelled. "Padparadscha come on! Please!"

"I'm getting a vision!" Padparadscha spoke up. "We are going to stop relying on eenie meenie miney moe!"

Lars sighed. "Thanks anyways."

"We should probably make a decision soon. This area is known to have frequent asteroid storms!" Rhodonite said.

"Ok ok." Lars said. "How about-"

"Incoming transmission!" Rhodonite cut in.

"Huh?" Lars asked as the screen snapped on.

"Surprise off colors!" Emerald said, baring her unusually sharp canines. "No escape this time!"

"That's your ship?" Lars asked, looking out the window.

"I DIDN'T HAVE MANY CHOICES SINCE YOU STOLE MY BEST ONE!"

"What's it called? The rust bucket?" Lars teased.

"AAAAAAGH!" Emerald shrieked. "I'll destroy you!"

"I changed my mind. Lets blow this galaxy." Lars said.

"Oh no you don't!" Emerald said.

"We can't get out!" Rhodonite said. "The asteroids form a ring around the area and slowly close in! We need to land now or we get crushed!"

"Great." Lars said.

"It looks like I win." Emerald purred.

"I don't think so." Lars said. "You're in danger too. We can shoot at you and looking at your rust bucket I don't think you can take too many hits."

Emerald paled. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Rhutiles, fire up the guns." Lars said.

Emerald pulled the apparent "rust bucket" into reverse.

"Captain Lars!" Rhodonite said. "The asteroids are getting closer!"

"Ok!" Lars said. I have a plan.

"It's going to be ok! Captain Lars is going to get a plan!" Padparadscha said.

"I'm going to use the Star Skipper to distract Emerald. The rest of you fly down to the left planet. I'll catch up with you."

"But Captain" a Rhutile said. "It's too dangerous!"

"Flourite, sync Emerald's feed to the Star Skipper, don't want her to get lonely." Lars said.

"Hello! I can still hear you!" Emerald said.

"Right." Lars said. He still had a lot to learn about gem tech, like how to turn it off for instence. "Then I guess we have even less time so we start moving now!"

The Star Skipper flew in the opposite direction of the Incinerator.

"What is that?" Emerald said, glaring in disgust at the Skipper.

"The Star Skipper! I built her myself!" Lars said proudly.

Emerald burst out laughing. "That's the best you can do?"

Lars blushed. "I had limited matirials!"

"No kidding." Emerald sighed. "Anyways, I'm not afraid to shoot that junk pile down."

"Gonna have to catch me first." Lars said. The skipper was smaller and faster.

"Fine." Emerald said. "If you insist Lars of the Stars, I will gladly destroy you right here and now.

Lars looked back at the approaching asteroids. Then a flash of green light forced him to move closer to them. Emerald was trying to do the same thing he was. Force Lars to run into the asteroids and get crushed.

Lars pulled the Skipper forwards and dove under the "Rust Bucket." Emerald managed to flip her ship over and hit the wing of the Star Skipper.

She was a better captain then Lars had thought, that was for sure.

Time was running out, the asteroid ring was closing in. One thing Lars had realized was that there seemed to be one small area of space the asteroids wouldn't reach. He just had to lead Emerald away from it.

A second hit made the Star Skipper rattle. Lars winced. One more hit and he was finished.

"Come on Captain." Emerald taunted. "I'm getting bored."

Lars smirked. "Well then lets make things interesting."

He flew the Star Skipper directly at the "rust bucket."

"What are you doing?" Emerald demanded.

Lars sped up.

"Oh so now you're going to kill yourself." Emerald said.

Lars continued going forward. He watched as Emerald slowly looked more nervous, and eventually pulled her ship away-

Right into the asteroids.

"No no no no no!" Emerald cried as the asteroids slammed into her. The transmission cut out and all Lars could hear was yelling.

"Bingo Bongo" Lars said, turning to the left planet. A particularly large asteroid sent Emerald's ship flying into the Skipper, sending both Lars and Emerald spiraling down towards the right planet.

The off colors waited nervously. "Anything?" a rhutile asked Padparadscha.

"I'm getting a vision!" Padparadscha said. "Captain Lars will outsmart Emerald, but their ships will go down on the right planet!"

"It's...not...a...gem...colony." Flourite spoke up. "I...remember now...it was...a...test...site...for...the...cluster...there...are...still...many...monsters...there.

That sent Rhodonite into hysterics.

"The planet isn't a colony! It's an old test site full of gem monsters! Captain Lars is in danger!"


	3. Chapter 3

Lars groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. The collision had knocked him unconsicous.

Nothing seemed broken but his head was killing him and he possibly had a concussion.

Lars's vision slowly came into focus...he couldn't believe it! The Skipper was still intact! Maybe he had done a better job building it then he had thought.

The radio seemed broken however. That wasn't good. Maybe he should just go back to sleep...

Lars sat up and slapped himself. He had to get out of the wreackage.

Slowly Lars managed to pull himself up and look around. It was the strangest looking gem colony he had seen yet. It was dark and eerily quiet. It was abandoned.

That was good and bad. There were no gems to capture him and that meant the other off colors were safe, but there was also no one to help him.

Lars dragged himself out of the skipper and tried to stand. He instantly fell to his knees overcome with diziness.

He saw scrap metal all around him. At first he thought it was part of the skipper, but then he realized that it was the remains of Emerald's ship.

Emerald! Was she still on the planet? Had she survived? If she had that was bad news for Lars. Gems were probably better equiped for surviving crashes then humans were. He was honestly incredibly lucky.

Lars saw something glittering in the wreakage. He slowly reached over and pulled it out. A green gem. It looked like...an emerald.

Lars froze. Was this Emerald? Was she dead? Her gem looked intact.

Lars carefully tapped the gem. Nothing. Maybe Emerald was dead. Had he killed her? Was he a murderer?

"I'm sorry..." Lars said softly. "I mean, you were a jerk and all but you didn't deserve this..."

The gem started glowing in his hand, growing warmer until it was searing Lars's hand.

"AAAAH!" Lars yelled, flinging the gem. It stopped in mid air and started glowing even brighter. A humanoid shape seemed to sprout from it and within seconds Emerald had appeared before him.

She dropped to her knees breathing heavily.

"GAAH!" Lars yelled, scrambling back. "How are you not dead?"

Emerald looked up at him. "You." She growled. "How did you survive?"

"What...how..." Lars spluttered.

"Wow you really are stupid." Emerald said, getting to her feet. "When gems get injured they retreat into their gems. You didn't really think I was dead did you?"

"...Of course not." Lars said. "I should have dropped a rock on your gem or something."

"You're injured." Emerald said, grinning.

Lars froze. If Emerald chose to attack him now he was completely defenseless.

"WAIT!" Lars yelled, and winced. His own voice hurt his head. "Where are we?"

"It...It doesn't matter." Emerald said. "There's bound to be a form of communication somewhere."

A strange screaming noise echoed from the distence. Emerald turned, and Lars seized his chance and scrambled away, almost falling over again.

"HEY!" Emerald yelled, running after him.

Lars was almost blind with pain. He couldn't go much farther.

Another scream sounded, this time much closer.

"STOP!" Emerald yelled. Lars fell forwards...

Down some sort of ditch. He was practically invisible now.

"COME OUT" Emerald demanded.

Her screaming was the last thing Lars heard before he blacked out again.

As Lars opened his eyes he saw stars. He closed them again...then opened them. Looking down he saw a pool of water which was reflecting the stars above him. Looking farther down Lars saw his own battered reflection. Man, he looked pretty messed up. Bruises ran up and down his face and his eyes were bloodshot.

As Lars slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position he realized that it was silent. He couldn't hear Emerald anywhere, or anything else for that matter.

Lars slowly dropped farther down the ditch which turned out to be a small cavern. He ran to the water's surface not caring if it was poisoned or something...was the water poisoned?

Lars glared suspiciously at the water's twinkling surface. It seemed safe enough. Nothing was jumping out of it to eat him...Lars suddenly realized that there were more stars in the pool then there should be. That star was green! Bright green!

Lars reached his hand into the pool and pulled out the "star." It was a gem shard. The pool was littered with gem shards. Gems had clearly been here but, what had happened to them?

Another scream pierced the air. The reflection of something huge appeared in the pool. Lars scrambled for the shadows. From his position he could barely see what the creature was. It was colorful, and appeared to have lots of arms.

Lars froze. The thing didn't appear to have a head.

Another scream issued from the creature as it moved on. Lars shuddered. That couldn't of been a gem...could it?

Lars stumbled farther back into the cavern, only to see that the cavern seemed more like a building the deeper he went.

An abandoned gem research lab.

Lars resisted the urge to push as many buttons as possible. There had to be a way to contact the outside world from here.

The lab had been completely wreacked. Something had smashed almost everything making it useless, but Lars knew that most gem buildings had multiple floors, so if this floor wad useless why not try another?

Lars looked around for a warp pad. After several dozen tries he had finally learned to use them without almost dying even though he still couldn't stick the landing 98% of the time.

What he found was not a warp pad, but an elevator.

At least it looked like an elevator. It still glowed the flourescent blue color of warp pads and played annoying music as Lars pressed the button and climbed in.

Of course she had to land on the most primitave gem colony in the galaxy, Emerald thought as she attempted to turn on the com system on the third floor.

After losing that disgusting off color she had found her way to a massive reasearch facility. The enterence had been completely demolished and she'd had to pry the doors open.

"Who even uses these any more?" Emerald growled as she messed with the non digital key board. Would it kill someone to update this system?

A soft ding sounded throughout the floor. Emerald froze. A set of doors slid open.

Lars stumbled out of the gem elevator. The bright light had practically blinded him and now he could barely see in the darkness.

The soft glow of a screen lit the room just enough for Lars to see.

Lars slowly walked towards the screen. Someone had turned it on...

Lars turned around. "I know you're here!" he yelled. The elevator dinged again.

Emerald had made it to the elevator? "She's fast" Lars muttered.

"Off color?" Emerald's voice called from the darkness.

Lars felt his insides turn to ice. "You're still here?"

"I thought that was you." Emerald said slowly, stepping into the light.

Footsteps sounded down the hall.

"Hide." Lars hissed. Emerald switched off the screen and they were plunged into darkness.

Something came blundering into the room. Grunting and squealing, it seemed to be running its hands over all of the dials.

Lars was hiding directly under the system. It was a tight fit and he could barely breathe.

The thing moved to the side and Lars slowly began to crawl out of his hiding place. Maybe he could make it to the elevator.

Suddenly the screen snapped on. The room was bathed in light. Lars looked up and screamed. The creature had four legs, and where its head should be, multiple arms. A single eyeball rested on its chest.

The thing screeched and thrust its arms down, trying to grab Lars. Lars rolled away and staggered to his feet. The thing stumbled towards him.

A cord at its feet suddenly pulled taunt, tripping it. The creature howled as it fell over. Lars saw Emerald drop the other end of the cord and dash towards the elevator.

"WAIT!" Lars yelled, running after her.

He caught up to her as she was pressing the button repeatedly to close the door. Lars slid in at the last second as the doors slammed shut.

Lars looked over at Emerald. She stared awkwardly back.

Lars turned his focus on the wall as the music played in the background.

Whether he was on Earth, or on an abandoned planet Lars still found himself in incredibly awkward situations.

"So...what was that thing?" Lars finally asked.

"It looked like a cluster gem." Emerald responded. "The cluster was a megaweapon meant to destroy your Earth, unfortunetly it failed, or I wouldn't be here with you."

"Thanks." Lars said, keeping his eyes on the wall.

The elevator slowed to a stop. The doors slid open. An intact screen stood before them.

Lars and Emerald stared at each other. "MINE!" They yelled at the same time. Lars started forward and Emerald yanked him back by his cape. Lars dove for her legs and tripped her. The two fought to get to the com system, but neither of them noticed the movement in the background.

"UNHAND ME YOU OFF COLOR SCUM!" Emerald yelped as Lars yanked her own cape over her head. By the time she had regained her vision Lars was paces ahead of her.

"Ha!" Lars said, turning back. He froze. A new cluster gem had emerged from the shadows. This one had arms growing out of its neck with three dinosaur like legs. It had Emerald in its clutches and was choking her.

Lars yanked a lever off of the dashboard and threw it at the creature. A gigantic mouth opened on its chest and swallowed it.

Then Lars did something incredibly stupid. He ran straight at the monster and kicked it as hard as he could. A dozen small and now reddened eyes opened where he had kicked the monster.

It screamed in pain and dropped Emerald.

"COME ON!" Lars yelled, grabbing her arm and dragging her away.

The elevator dinged again.

"No." Lars muttered. Then his heart practically stopped.

It was just an arm, a giant arm dragging itself closer to them.

Lars tried to scream but nothing came out. The arm slowly dragged itself closer...closer...

"MOVE OFF COLOR!" Emerald yelled, yanking Lars to the side and kicking the arm away.

When Lars didn't respond Emerald picked him up and sprinted to the elevator across the room. She threw him in and frantically pressed the button to close the doors. Once they were shut Emerald pounced on Lars.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" She yelled, shaking him.

"I..." Lars trailed off.

"I am not dragging your incompetant off color ass anywhere else! You get one free pass! If you don't snap out of it now I'm leaving you here to die!"

Lars blinked and shuddered. "How...just an arm..."

Emerald slapped him across the face.

"OW!"

"AND STAY AWAKE!"

The two stared at each other.

"...thanks..."

The elevator opened. Another screen.

"IS THIS PLACE A MAZE?" Emerald shrieked. "HOW DO WE GET OUT!"

"Shhh." Lars hissed, looking around the room. "Ok, I think we're good."

Emerald groaned and sank down onto the floor.

"What? What's wrong?" Lars asked.

"I know where we are. It's the Fortress. It's a literal labrynth. It was a starting point for the cluster and the most dangerous test results were created her. They got too powerful and smart and shattered all the peridot that worked here, so the diamonds abandoned it. Everything's so primitive so the cluster gems can make them work. The Diamonds wanted them to be a new kind of warrior and since they're made from gem shards they can always make more."

"So we're pretty much in the middle of their territory." Lars said. Emerald nodded mournfully.

"We're going to die here. There are hundreds of them and even if we do contact help we're never going to be able to get out of here."

"No we're not!" Lars said. "I refuse to let us die here!"

"Good luck with that." Emerald grumbled.

"Come on." Lars said, walking over to the com unit. "If we can get through to my crew we can fly you back to the nearest colony. That can be payback."

"You...you would?" Emerald asked.

"Sure, I owe you." Lars said. "And I don't want to be in debt to a bitch like you."

"HEY!" Emerald screamed. A piece of scrap metal hit Lars in the head. He groaned and doubled over.

"It wasn't even that heavy. You humans are weaker then I thought." Emerald said, walking over to the coms. She picked up the keyboard and examined it.

"No...you keep it on the table." Lars groaned, holding his head. "It's like a computer from Earth. I can work it."

Emerald sighed, but pushed the keyboard over to Lars. He reached for it and fell forward. Emerald grabbed him around the waist holding him up.

Lars managed to grab the keyboard and start typing with Emerald supporting him.

"Yes!" Lars exclaimed as the com system connected to the Incinerator.

"CAPTAIN!" Rhodonite screeched when she saw him. "WHERE ARE...you..." she trailed off as she saw Emerald.

"It's ok, we have a truce." Lars said. "We're in the Fortress. Heard of it?"

"Oh no." wailed Rhodonite.

"It's...ok...Captain." Flourite said. "I...know...the...way...out...I'll...send...you...instructions.

Lars nodded. "We'll meet you outside."

The com snapped off. Lars pulled a small gem flashdrive out of his pocket and plugged it into the computer. It started blinking as it finished downloading.

"Alright." Lars said, pulling it out. He shivered. It was cold in the fortress. Emerald seemed fine. Lars didn't know if gems could get cold. He pressed himself closer to Emerald without thinking.

She dropped him.

"OW!"

"Don't do that!" she snapped, striding towards the elevator. Lars pressed a button on the flashdrive and a holographic map appeared with a route highlighted.

"Hey Emerald"

"WHAT?"

"Other way." Lars said, pointing to a hidden elevator on the other side of the room.

Emerald scowled and walked after Lars.

"How does your permafusion know how to navigate this place anyways?" she asked as the doors slid shut.

"I don't know. Maybe one of Flourite's gems used to work here or something." Lars said. "Pretty lucky huh?"

"I can't believe I'm accepting help from off colors." Emerald said, turning away from him.

Lars sighed. The sooner they were out of there the better.

The doors slid open to a different identical room.

"Why do they have to look the same?" Lars muttered. He pressed the button for the holo-map again.

"Turn that thing off!" Emerald hissed. "Something could see it!"

"It would probably hear you first." Lars said, wishing he had some sort of weapon. "We need to get to that doorway there. It won't lead us to another identical room. It's a hallway the homeworld gems used."

Emerald sighed. "Would you like to go first?"

Lars stared at her. Was she finally playing nice?

Lars took a cautious step forward, then another. It seemed safe-

A cluster gem with a tourso and eight arms like a spider jumped down at him.

"AAAGH!" Lars yelled, running towards the door.

The spider cluster was in the middle of the room, feeling around. Lars doubled over panting. It was lucky he had gone first.

Emerald scowled. Her plan was to let Lars go first and hopefully get eaten by something, but she hadn't been planning on him escaping. Now she was the one trapped.

"Emerald." Lars whispered. "I'll distract it, you sneak over here."

Emerald stared at him. He was safe! Why was he risking everything to help her?

Lars slowly approached the spider creature. He picked up a gem shard and threw it.

The creature roared and started towards Lars. Emerald took her chance and made it to the door. She touched the wall and a pannel appeared. It was more high tech and required a password.

"Off color." She hissed. "What's the password."

Lars was scrambling away from the spider thing. "Ok, It's pentagon thingy, octagon thingy, shape I don't know thingy..."

"WHAT?" Emerald yelled.

"Here!" Lars called, tossing her the flash drive. Emerald copied the password and the doors slid open.

The spider creature shrieked and ran towards her, Lars behind it. He slid under its arms, tripping it. Emerald grabbed his leg and pulled him through the door as they started to slam shut-

The spider creature stuck out its arm to keep the door open. Fourtunetly the doors were too strong for it and slammed shut anyways, chopping the arm off.

Lars screeched and jumped back as the arm started moving. Emerald stomped down on it, poofing it and grinding the gem shard into dust with her foot.

"Ok." Lars said, dusting himself off. "Now we go this way."

The room they were in now was vastly different. It was a long narrow hallway with a second set of doors at the end.

"Why are you so scared of severed limbs?" Emerald asked as the two walked towards the doors.

Lars groaned. Now she wanted to talk. "It's nothing."

"Oh really?" Emerald said.

"Yes really!" Lars snapped, blushing.

In reality when he was three, his cousin said he was going to show him a magic trick and had "sawed off his arm." To this day Lars still didn't know how the trick was accomplished but it had been very realistic and had freaked the hell out of him.

The second set of doors slid open revealing a circular room with different doors.

"Which one?" Emerald commanded.

"Stop telling me what to do." Lars said, tapping at the holo-map. Emerald snatched the flash drive out of his hand. "CAREFUL! YOU'LL BREAK IT!"

"You're below me in rank, therefore I command you." Emerald said, examining the map.

"HOW WOULD YOU KNOW? I'M A SPACE ZOMBIE!" Lars yelled, reaching for the flash drive. Emerald held it above his head.

"I think I'll take this now."

"WHAT?" Lars yelled. "Well its my crew coming to get us!"

"On my ship!"

"GIVE IT!" Lars yelled diving for it again.

The two fought over it again, not unlike the fight for the com system.

"WHY ARE YOU SO TALL!" Lars yowled as Emerald sprinted away.

Something crashed in the distence. Seconds later the spider cluster came skittering in, with one less arm now. It seemed to spot Emerald and howled.

Emerald froze.

Lars carefully snuck around the spider creature, trying to steal the flashdrive back while Emerald was distracted.

The spider creature lurched forward and Emerald jumped back, dropping the flashdrive.

"NO!" Lars yelled, running to save it. He managed to snatch it before the spider thing stepped on it. Before Lars knew it the spider creature had flung him aside seding him flying into Emerald.

Lars ended up standing on her to reach the keypad for one of the doors and typed in the password.

"OW!" Emerald shrieked.

"SORRY!" Lars yelled back, jumping through the door. Emerald did a sort of ninja roll to her feet and through the door.

Once again the spider creature reached for them only to get a second arm cut off.

"MY TURN!" Lars yelled, stomping on the arm. "DIE! DIE!"

"It's dead." Emerald said, watching this with an amused look on her face.

Lars stepped back. "That felt good."

"Well congrats." Emerald said, looking around. The new room was bigger then anything they had seen yet. It was circular like the last room and had a large spiral staircase leading up to another floor.

"There's a landing pad up there. It's where they can pick us up." Lars said.

"You know off color I was thinking." Emerald said. "This truce thing got boring. I think we should break it off now."

"Wha-" Emerald kicked Lars in the stomach and took off running up the stairs. Lars ran for the opposite end.

The staircase was degrading and whole chunks of stair were missing. Lars barely made it over one hole.

Emerald scowled. Lars was going faster then she thought he could...movement below her caught her eye. Cluster gems, dozens of them were climbing after her and Lars.

Lars saw them and yelped. One of them was only a hand and a foot combined!

The cluster gems were faster and soon Lars had to jump over stair holes and dodge cluster creatures.

The was a scream and Lars saw a cluster gem grab Emerald's leg and start pulling her back towards a hole.

Emerald writhed around, trying to grab ahold of something, panicking.

Lars then attempted the farthest jump ever for zombie kind. He sprung over the gap separating the two stair cases and grabbed Emerald's arm.

"HANG ON!" Lars yelled. The cluster started dragging both of them towards the hole. Lars spotted a pointed shaft of metal and grabbed it.

"HEADS UP!" He yelled and stabbed the stick into the cluster gem. It disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Lars looked at his makeshift weapon. "Alright!"

"Why did you do that?" Emerald asked, looking dumbfounded.

"The truce isn't over until I say so." Lars said. Emerald stared at him.

The pair finally made it to the landing pad. Before long the Sun Incinerator was visable. Emerald stared at it with tears in her eyes. Lars thought he heard her whisper "Sunny."

"Pretty cool huh?" Lars asked.

"Pretty cool? I built that ship with my bare hands! She's one of a kind!" Emerald said.

Lars' heart almost broke at his next action. He took the rod and jammed it into Emerald's tourso.

She choked and turned too look at him, a look of pure betrayal on her face. A single tear fell down her cheek and she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Lars caught her gem before it hit the ground.

"Sorry Emmy." He whispered, holding the gem to his chest.

 **A/N Damn that was a long chapter! And this story got favorites already? Dang! Anyways I'm baiscally writing this from a list of headcannons I was given, and I think it's going kinda sorta ok. Do me a solid and leave a reveiw and tell me how I'm doing! Have a great day! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

It had been days since anyone had seen Emerald. She had locked herself in a room and had stayed there for as long as possible. The rumor was she had been planning something big to get the Incinerator back.

In reality she had been crying her eyes out.

So close! She had been so close to Sunny and then that damn space pirate had to go and ruin everything!

Emerald was debating handing herself over to the Diamonds now. Giving up sounded nice.

The com system snapped on in the room she was in. Yellow Pearl leered down at her, smile growing bigger at Emerald's suffering.

"What?" Emerald growled.

"Well hello Emerald." Yellow Pearl said. "I just wanted to inform you that the diamonds fully support your little insanity mission and they wish to help in any way they can."

Emerald raised an eyebrow.

"It seems that your ship contains something they want." Yellow Pearl continued. "The captain is supposedly a human back from the dead with surprising new powers. The diamonds wish to recover this speciman and test it. If they can find out how to bring humans back, they can use the human zoo for something other than entertainment."

Emerald could hardly believe her ears. They wanted to study the captain?

"If you let them take the human, then in return the Diamonds will give you as much help as possible in recovering your ship and will not shatter you."

Emerald pinched her arm. This had to be a dream.

"So." Yellow Pearl said. "Are you willing to comply or not?"

The group of Amathyst and Rubies were playing a gem card game outside the door.

"MOVE YOU INSOLENT SERVANTS!" Emerald screamed, bursting out of the room. She had work to do.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Lars muttered as Rhodonite searched for possible landing areas.

There were many reasons that proved a human couldn't survive on a gem colony easily, and one of them was not being able to find a bathroom.

Ever since his resserection nature had called less often, but when it did it was usually a bad time.

"I have something captain!" Rhodonite announced.

"Land! LAND!" Lars yelped, crossing his legs.

With in seconds the incinerator had landed and Lars was running for a bush.

Many things about humans puzzled the off colors, and going to the bathroom was one of them. Padparadscha had tried to watch once, resulting in Lars screaming at her.

After answering nature'ss untimely call Lars returned to the crew. "Ok, where are we?"

"I'm not exactly sure, somewhere in the Orion sector though, that's for sure." Rhodonite said.

"I say we take a break." Lars said. "We all need a little rest. Emerald's been MIA and we've earned it."

As much as Lars missed Earth he had gone weeks without sleep and was finally starting to feel tired.

The crew dispersed to do their own activities and Lars laid back on some ferns. He missed Earth, he really did, but deep down he loved being a space pirate. He was respected, he was brave, he had a nemesis! Lars, undead space pirate, if only the cool kids could see him now!

Yes, he missed his parents, and Sadie, boy did he miss Sadie, but honestly he had expected more of an uproar then this. He had heard nothing of Earth, and had decided that Steven had downplayed his death like he downplayed everything else.

He could almost hear Steven's voice now, "And then Lars died! But it's ok, don't freak out, he's fine!"

Lars sighed and turned over. He felt far more important here then he ever did on Earth. Emerald had dropped everything to persue him. He was finally starting to be as important as Steven.

Lars must have drifted off at some point, because when he awoke the sun had moved in the alien sky.

"Alright gang!" Lars said, standing up. "Ready to roll?"

"Bingo bongo!" the off colors cheered. Lars smiled. He loved how bingo bongo had sort of become a group cheer.

The off colors returned to the ship and took off.

"Captain, tell us about Earth again!" a rhutile exclaimed.

"Well" Lars started out "Earth is nothing like homeworld. For one we have freedom! You're free to be whoever you want, love whoever you want, not have psychotic maniacs in charge-"

"Incoming transmission!" Rhodonite broke in.

The screen blinked on. Emerald was visable, grinning at them.

"About time." Lars said. "I was getting bored. Where have you been..." Lars trailed off, seeing the mainiac glint in Emerald's eye.

"Finally." She snarled. "Finally I have you in my clutches!"

"Time to warp outta here." Lars said.

"Oh no you don't." Emerald purred. "I have a batillion waiting just outside this quadrent. Try to run, they'll catch you. Surrender to me now and I promise it will be painless."

"Yeah right. You're alone as usual." Lars snorted.

"Uh, captain." Rhodonite said nervously. "I'm detecting at least twenty battle crusiers."

"WHAT?" Lars yelled, looking at the dashboard. "Where did she get the resources?"

"Time's running out Captain." Emerald said. The Destiny Destroyer pulled alongside the Incinerator.

"Come on now." Lars said. "Is this any way to go about buisness?" he calmly strode over to the screen. "I invoke parlay!"

"Parlay?" Emerald asked, clearly confused.

"Yes!" Lars declared. "Parlay!" in reality Lars had gotten the idea from a movie. "If one captain invokes parlay, both that captain and the opposite captain meet on a neutral field and agree to terms!"

Emerald stared at him in confusion.

"If...if a captain objects to parlay the opposite captian blows up their ship" Larss finished.

"WHAT?" the off colors and Emerald yelled.

"NO NO NO NO NO!" Emerald cried. "I'll meet where ever you want! We can use another ship. You! Fly your ship over here and clear off!" she commanded. Within seconds an empty battle cruiser awaited them.

"WHAT?" yelled Padparadscha.

Lars gathered his courage and prepared to change ships. An ability of a gem ships was an ability to connect to each other to make ship transfers easy.

Lars exited the Incinerator and entered the battle crusier to find Emerald waiting for him.

"Well?" Emerald asked. "What is the use of this "parlay?"

"Hi." Lars said. "How are you?"

Emerald stared at him. "Is your oversized human head still injured? Let's get this over with!"

"Gee." Lars said, pressing the com button on his gage so the Incinerator could hear them. "It would be a shame if the Incinerator were to attack!"

Nothing. Emerald raised an eyebrow.

"I said!" Lars said louder. "It would be a shame if the INCINERATOR were to ATTACK!"

"OH!" Rhodonite squealed.

Pandemonium ensued.

The Incinerator began shooting down ships, and with Emerald in a different ship she was unable to give them orders.

"NO!" Emerald yelled, diving for the com system. Lars tackled her and ended up on top of her.

"GET OFF!"

Lars shoved her down, refusing to make eye contact. This was crossing into toucher territory again.

Being a captain made life hard.

Ships went down all around them as Lars and Emerald wrestled each other.

Emerald finally managed to get an upper hand and proceeded to slam Lars' face against the dashboard. His face hit a lever.

Emerald dropped Lars. Lars froze.

"Oh no." they both muttered.

The lever had turned off the gravity thrusters and the crusier dropped out of orbit. It fell past the incinerator and right into a shot aimed for a different ship. The blast knocked the nova thrusters into action and the cruiser sped off into space.

Lars and Emerald were thrown around as the ship bounced off of asteroids. Finally it slowed to a stop.

Lars slowly got to his feet. He was ok, but he had hit his head again. At this rate he was going to get space brain damage or something.

There was a groan from the other side of the room. Emerald. Lars prepared himself for wrestling round two.

Emerald coughed and slowly rolled to her feet, turning to face Lars.

Lars gasped.

"What?" Emerald demanded. Lars slowly pointed to his eye. Emerald slowly reached up to feel her gem.

Her insides turned to ice.

"No..."

She was cracked.

 **A/N HEYO! Thanks for more favorites and follows! Really appreciate it! Due to the further lack of reviews I am going to assume I am doing everything perfectly and going to continue on like this!**

 **Alright then, again, reviews would be greatly appreciated and I'll see you all next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

"No..." Emerald whispered, running her fingers down the crack. "No no no..."

Lars watched as the look on her face slowly turned from shock to panic.

"Th-this can't be happening!" Emerald said, breathing faster. "I-I can't be cracked!" She was practically hypervenilating now.

Lars jumped back as Emerald's form violently glitched, like a broken holographic map.

"No...no please no.." She was muttering. The more frantic she became the more her form glitched.

Lars had heard that cracking a gem was excruciating and eventually resulted in a slow and painful death.

Lars looked out the window. The ship had stopped moving and everything was still.

"Emerald." Lars said. "I think-" Lars froze as he saw Emerald having a sort of seizure switching between a solid form and light.

Lars ran over to her. "Hey! HYEY! Calm down!" it took him a few tries to grab a hold of her shoulder, but once he did it seemed his touch seemed to have stopped the seizure.

Emerald was shaking. "I don't...I don't want to die..."

"You're not going to." Lars said. "I'm going to get us out of here."

"Do you understand nothing you insolent mortal?" Emerald growled. "I'm cracked. I'll be completely shattered in minimal time."

Lars looked around the ship. 90% of things were broken, the nova thrusters and com systems included.

"We can't call for help, and we can't fly out of here." Lars said. Emerald groaned and flopped onto her back. "I'm dead."

"No, not yet." Lars said. "And I can still die here too. No food, no water, no bathroom."

"No what?" Emerald asked weakly.

Lars could probably survive longer then Emerald at this rate but he would die out here eventually. Sometimes it sucked to be human.

"Rose Quartz" Emerald mumbled. "That's what I need. Lots and lots of Rose Quartz."

"Steven's a rose quartz." Lars said without thinking.

"What?" Emerald said, sitting up again.

"Steven. It's how he healed me...could another rose quartz heal you?"

"Yes, if we make it back in time." Emerald said, laying back again. "And the chances are zero to none."

"Don't say that." Lars said. "We can get back. This is a strong ship-"

"That just took a direct hit that scrambled all systems and now we're in the middle of nowhere.

"Nav system!" Lars said, jumping up. "Ow" Emerald grumbled, as Lars had used her shoulder to push himself up.

"Sorry." Lars said, running to the dashboard. "Come on, come on." He said as he pressed buttons.

The cracked screen blinked on, showing a map. "YES!" Lars yelled. "We're not too far outside the Orion quadrent! The Orion sector's only a little farther.

"All of the ships are probably destroyed." Emerald said.

"Do you really think the Incinerator couldn't handle a little cat fight?" Lars asked.

"Of course it could!" Emerald snapped.

"Then I bet it's out there looking for us."

"If I'm going to die." Emerald said, "I want to die with Sunny."

Lars sighed. "Look, I want to give it back, I really do but we need it."

"You can have this ship."

Lars looked around at the wreaked ship. "Thanks but no thanks."

Emerald struggled to her feet. "Do you really think we can get out of here?"

"Yeah." Lars said, looking around the ship again. "What's this one called?"

"The Nebula Slicer." Emerald said. "It's a two gem ship, you can't fly it by yourself..."

Emerald kept talking but Lars pondered a new issue. If Emerald died then Lars had an even smaller chance at survival.

"...and it can fly straight through black holes and...you're not listening are you?" Emerald said.

"Maybe you should sit down." Lars said. Emerald shook her head. "I'm not accepting your pity." She ran her fingers over the dials.

Something moved outside the window. Lars froze. He slowly looked outside the window. "Woah..."

"Great." Emerald sighed. "Comets."

"So cool" Lars said softly.

"You've never seen a comet?"

"Only from Earth." Lars said. "I would lay on my trampoline and look at the stars. Sometimes Sadie would come with me. Man I wish she could see this."

"Sadie?" Emerald demanded. "What's a Sadie?"

"Sadie's my friend. We fight a lot sometimes but-"

"ARE YOU SAYING THAT THIS SADIE IS A MORE WORTHY OPPONENT THEN ME?" Emerald screamed.

"She's certainly quieter." Lars said.

Emerald slammed her fist down on the dashboard. "NO! YOU'RE MINE! I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO GETS TO DESTROY YOU!"

Lars couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Guess you love me too much."

Emerald's face turned a dark shade of green. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I AM ONE OF HOMEWORLD'S FINEST COMMANDERS! NO "SADIE" IS GOING TO TAKE MY PRISONER AWAY FROM ME! AND YOU MEAN NOTHING TO M-"

Emerald's words broke off as her form glitched.

"Woah." Lars said, throwing an arm out to catch her as she fell forward. "Ok, I'll annoy you later."

Emerald's breathing had become short and labored. "I...I'm ok." she managed. "Let go of me." Lars did and she stumbled forward, grabbing ahold of the dashboard for support.

Lars watched her in sympathy. Emerald was clearly getting worse. They needed to escape now.

"Ok." Lars said, looking at the dials. He had never actually flown a battle crusier before.

"Ugh, you're useless." Emerald said, shoving Lars out of the way. She reached out and started powering on the ship with an expert's hand. Emerald turned her attention to the com system. "It might not be completely down."

Emerald powered it on and attempted to connect to the Sun Incinerator.

"Sun Incinerator, do you copy? This is the Nebula Slicer, repeat, this is the Nebula Slicer, do you copy?"

Static.

"Wait." Lars said.

"For what?" Emerald demanded, staring at the static.

"Padparadscha." Lars said smugly. "Just wait."

Suddenly the com system crackled.

"Nebula Slicer this is the Sun Incinerator. Captain Lars are you ok?"

"Rhodonite!" Lars said. The static screen wavered and for a split second Rhodonite was visable.

"Oh thank the stars." Rhodonite said.

"I got a vision that you would contact us!" Padparadscha called.

Emerald seemed confused.

"We're tracking you now." A rhutile said.

"We need to get back to homeworld ASAP" Lars said.

"A sap?" a rhutile asked.

"ASAP. As soon as possible. Come on guys we've been over this!" Lars said. Emerald snickered.

"Right, sorry." The rhutile said.

"Uh oh." Rhodonite spoke up. "Uh, Captain we might have a slight delay, TURN TURN TURN!"

The transmission cut out.

"It seems they were intercepted." Emerald said. Lars groaned. They were on their own again.

"Think they're ok?" Lars asked a little while later. He and Emerald were sitting on opposite ends of the ship.

"I don't care if you're little off color freaks are alright."

Then more silence.

"Do you think Sunny's alright?" Emerald asked.

"I don't care if your stupid ship is ok." Lars said. He was trying to think of happy things to keep his mind off his situation.

Sadie. That was one thing that made him happy.

 _"LARS!" Sadie screamed. "GET YOUR FEET OFF THE COUNTER!"_

 _Lars sighed and moved his feet down._

 _"And while you're being helpful go grab some more napkins from the back." Sadie said. "Hey, whatcha reading?"_

 _Lars quickly slammed the book shut. "Nothing."_

 _"I didn't know you could read." Sadie said teasingly. Lars glared at her and headed for the back room._

 _"Aw come on Lars." Sadie said. "Let me see!"_

 _Lars finally shoved the book at her when she didn't stop whining._

 _"Engineering?" she asked._

 _"Yeah, it's kinda fun. I've been taking stuff apart for a while now. Some day I wanna build my own spaceship and..." Lars trailed off. He was getting waaaaaay to nerdy. What if the cool kids walked in right then?_

 _"...it's nothing really." He finished._

 _"Lars are you kidding me!?" Sadie yelled. "That's so cool! I bet you could do it too! You're totally going to build something amazing some day! AND GET YOUR FEET OFF THE COUNTER!"_

Lars sighed. Boy did he miss Sadie. Sadie was one of the only people who actually believed in him. Honestly he felt so worthless sometimes. He could barely believe that he was flying through space with gems depending on him.

WHY HIM?

Lars knew he was honestly a worthless person and that no one would ever want him around unless he was useful. Half of beach city thought his name was "Doughnut Boy" for crying out loud!

Lars suddenly realized that it was strangely quiet. Emerald had fallen silent.

"Emerald?" Lars asked. "You ok?" When there was no response Lars quickly ran to her side. Her eyes were closed.

"Emerald! EMERALD!" Lars yelled, shaking her.

"GAAAAH!" Emerald yelled, sitting up. "What...Where...oh...It's you." Emerald said, face falling back into a scowl.

Lars grinned. "I think you fell asleep."

"Impossible." Emerald said. "Gems don't need sleep."

"Doesn't mean they can't." Lars said shrugging.

Emerald lapsed into silence, thinking.

"Anyways, do you know how to open this?" Lars asked, knocking on the control pannel. "I might be able to fix it."

"You? You're not even a gem." Emerald snorted.

Lars strongly debated backing down. No, he wasn't the same Lars who had constantly hidden his personality.

"I don't see you trying to fix it." He said calmly.

"I would!" Emerald snapped. "But my hands are being...weird." Every so often Emerald's hands would flicker, sometimes disappearing for minutes.

"Tick tock." Lars said smugly.

Emerald scowled and kicked at the pannel. It fell off revealing wires and controls.

Lars bent down to examine them. It was more complicated then anything he had tried before. Nova thruster controls, com system controls, shield controls, escape pod controls, gun controls, Where did he start?

There was a thump behind Lars. Lars turned to see Emerald convulsing on the floor.

"Oh my god!" Lars yelled, running to her side. "Emerald! Can you hear me? Try to calm down!"

"I c-c-can't" her voice crackled like static. Lars reached out and managed to grab ahold of her again. Instantly the flickering stopped.

"How did you do that?" Emerald asked.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm like, anchoring you or something?" Lars said. He could feel Emerald shaking. He needed to get her out of there. They had wasted so much time already.

Emerald had latched onto him now. Her eye was closed and she was breathing heavily. She seemed so defenseless now.

Lars gently pulled her onto his lap and held her close. To his surprise Emerald actually snuggled up against him like a cat. Looking at her gem Lars realized that the crack had gotten bigger.

Why? This was all Lars' fault. If he wasn't so useless maybe he would have a way out of here. If he was more brave he wouldn't have played the stupid parlay card and this wouldn't of happened. If he wasn't so stupid he wouldn't of tried wrestling a celestial being.

And he couldn't even fix the stupid ship. Stupid nova thrusters, and shields, and com systems, and escape pod...

Lars froze. The escape pod!

"Emerald." He said softly. "I can get us out of here."

"...about time..." Emerald mumbled.

"Ok, try to stand." Lars said. "I'll hold onto you."

The roles had reversed. It hadn't been too long ago when Emerald had been supporting Lars. Lars quickly debated dropping her for some last minute revenge but decided against it. Emerald seemed kind of cute like this, and if Lars had learned one thing from Steven it was "Never drop cute things."

The escape pod was similar to the Star Skipper, but with different controls.

"Sweet! Star Skipper two!" Lars said.

"Oh please no." Emerald groaned. Lars grinned. The old Emerald was still present.

"Ok." Lars said once they were both settled in the escape pod. "Let's chart a course to homeworld.

"They're going to catch you." Emerald said. "And then they'll cut you apart."

"Yeah?" Lars asked, petting Emerald's head. "Too bad they won't catch me."

Lars jumped out of the ship and sealed it again.

"See ya later!" He called.

Emerald's one eye widened. "Wait-" the escape pod shot off towards homeworld.

Lars smiled. "See you next time Emmy."

A few hours later Lars found himself huddled against the dashboard shivering. It was getting really cold and Lars wasn't sure how much longer he could hold out.

Suddenly the com system crackled.

"CAPTAIN WE'RE COMING!" Rhodonite screamed.

Lars smiled. Then his eyes closed and he slumped over, unconcious.

Emerald was back in her room, debating ways to kill those off colors. Now it was so much harder! She owed Lars! How could she let this happen!

Emerald had arrived on homeworld minutes from deteriorating. A rose quartz had healed her and Yellow Diamond herself had called to tell Emerald that if she couldn't handle a full scale attack on her own without getting cracked she was no longer authourized to carry out this mission on her own.

Emerald couldn't believe this. Lars was her mission! Her personal buisness! He had stolen her ship, the Diamonds had no right to get involved!

Well, they did, but Emerald hated them for it. She could handle this by herself. She had tried to explain that this was a freak occurence, and had tried to explain the dangers of parlays, but the diamonds wouldn't hear it. Emerald was supposed to meet a new "associate" who was going to help her recover her ship and Lars.

Before long a citrine arrived to escort her to the landing bay.

Emerald scowled. This should be good. This new gem better be impressive or...

Emerald froze. Great. That smirk, the too cute outfit.

They just had to send an aquamarine.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Hello friends! I got a request for these next to chapters so we'll see how this goes! Enjoy!**

Lars pulled his cape tighter around him sniffling. It had been a few days since he had been rescused from the ship and he was still freezing. Apparently he had somehow found a way to get sick in the middle of space. Awesome.

"Captain, our nova thrusters sustained serious damage when we were escaping the batillion." a rhutile said. "We're going to need to land to fix it."

"Alright." Lars said, getting to his feet. Everything ached. "We can find a planet and-" Lars broke off into a harsh coughing fit.

"Captain are you alright?" Rhodonite asked.

"I'm great." Lars said. "Now what's near us?"

"Only gem colonies for a few sectors." Rhodonite said.

"Ok, then what's the emptiest one?" Lars said.

"Let me check." Rhodonite replied. The ship fell silent as Rhodonite carefully scrolled through different options.

Lars sneezed suddenly and all the gems jumped.

Two minutes later Padparadscha jumped.

"Captain..." Rhodonite said.

"I'm fine!" Lars said defensively.

"Well we try here but no promises it'll be all, what was it you said earlier, "rainbows and puppies." Rhodonite said.

"That's alright with me" Lars said. "By the way, do they have tissues on homeworld?"

Emerald was about ready to shatter herself. Aquamarine was INSUFFERABLE. She absolutely had to be in control of everything all the time, not to mention her ship was complete trash, she had been relying on a topaz to fly it, and now Emerald had been forced to fly it.

Every time Emerald heard that tinkly laugh she felt her last shreds of sanity leaving her, and that wand, if Emerald got zapped one more time, she didn't care what the punishment was, she was literally going to kill Aquamarine.

Emerald's dreary mood lifted a little when she saw the Sun Incinerator's signiture appear on the screen. "There!"

"I'm not blind you know." Aquamarine said. "And wouldn't it just be simpler to blow them up and snatch them as they fly out of their ship?"

"NO!" Emerald screamed. She had tried to explain how important Sunny was but Aquamarine refused to listen. Emerald was not letting the little blue monster near the gun controls.

"Connect me to that pathetic little ship." Aquamarine commanded.

"Connect yourself." Emerald scowled. "And I get to talk to them."

"Well then I do too." Aquamarine said cheerfully. "My lovely partner."

Emerald was about ready to yank her hair out.

"Alright, bring us down!" Lars said.

"Incoming transmission!" Rhodonite said.

"Oh boy." Lars said.

"Hello specimen, freaks." A turquoise gem gem said.

"Wha?" Lars asked. "Where's-"

"MOVE!" Emerald demanded, shoving Aquamarine out of the way.

"...Oh." Lars said.

"This is your fault." Emerald hissed.

"Hey Emmy, who's your friend?" Lars asked.

"What did you just call me?" Emerald demanded. Aquamarine almost fell over laughing.

"Emmy, adorable."

"SHUT UP!" Emerald yelled.

"So, you gonna introduce us or..."

Emerald scowled. "Aquamarine, off colors, off colors, Aquamarine."

"They're more freakish then I thought!" Aquamarine said, clapping her hands.

The off colors seemed hurt by this. Lars scowled.

"Now then." Aquamarine said. "Prepare to be taken down in the name of the diamonds, it's really an honor you met an aquamarine before you died..."

As Aquamarine went on the off colors could see Emerald slamming her head on the dashboard in the background.

"I am so sorrry Emerald." Lars said, meaning it.

"You should be." She hissed.

"So, Aquamarine." Lars said. "I didn't know gems could be that...small."

In the background Emerald was shaking with silent laughter.

"I may be small, but I am more then able to capture you." Aquamarine said. "Are all space pirates that scrawny?"

Now Emerald was practically dying.

Lars scowled. He hated this gem.

"Waaaaaait a minute." Lars said. "I know you! It's your fault I'm here at all!"

"SO THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Emerald screamed.

Aquamarine's eyes widened. "I don't believe it! It's the Lars!"

"Believe it." Emerald said. "Now can we please get back to crushing him?"

Aquamarine nodded. "Must we leave the ship untouched?"

"YES!"

"The diamonds are going to be so pleased." Aquamarine said cheerfully.

"Diamonds?" Lars asked. "What do they want?"

"None of your buisness." Aquamarine said smartly. "Now then, let's see if you're as tough as Emerald says."

"He's not tough! Just lucky!" Emerald said as the transmission cut out.

The off colors watched as the turquoise ship pulled alongside theirs.

"This is not good." Lars said. A small gun lowered from the ship.

"Th-they won't shoot us will they?" Rhodonite asked.

Lars stared at the gun. Emerald wouldn't shoot but Aquamarine might.

"NO!" Emerald yelled, swatting Aquamarine away from the controls.

"Fine." Aquamarine sighed. "I'll only pull them in."

The little gun went back inside the ship. Instead the bottom opened up and a large claw came out, grabbing the sun incinerator and pulling it inside.

"GENTLE! BE GENTLE!" Emerald cried frantically.

"I am being gentle." Aquamarine grumbled.

"PUT IT IN REVERSE!" Lars yelled hoarsely. His voice was dying quickly.

"I'M TRYING" a rhutile screamed as they were pulled into Aquamarine's ship.

Soon the Sun Incincerator was inside the turqouoise ship.

"YES!" Lars heard Emerald yell. Soon the door opened to the Incinerator. "OUT NOW!" Emerald commanded.

Lars looked at the others. They slowly exited the craft.

Emerald ran over and hugged the dashboard. "Oh Sunny, I'm never letting you out of my sight again!"

Lars raised an eyebrow.

"STOP JUDGING!"

"This is pathetic." Aquamarine said. "Come on, let's shatter these ones and ship the Lars off to the diamonds."

"Fine." Emerald grumbled. She was petting one of the chairs.

"Now, who's first?" Aquamarine said evily. "Oh would you look at that! Some of these are fusions! How revolting!"

Flourite narrowed her eyes.

"Look at these monstrosities! I have a better idea, let's give them to blue diamond to put in her zoo! She can start a new exhibit! Freaks of Nature! I'll get the credit of course."

"Whatever." Emerald said, looking at the ship.

"If you want to fly it so badly you can deliver the Lars to the Diamonds. I'll meet you there." Aquamarine said. It seemed that she didn't want anyone else to take credit for the zoo idea.

"Ok!" Emerald said brightly. She clamped a collar-like device on Lars. "Try to take it off or escape and it shocks you." She snarled. "So don't try anything."

Lars looked back at his terrified crew as he was lead onto the Incinerator.

"Sit." Emerald commanded. Lars slumped down. It seemed hopeless now. He was spilt up from his crew heading for some unknown fate.

And he really needed some tissues.

Emerald was humming and looking happier then she had in a long time. It seemed like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"I think I might watch them test you." She said cheerfully. "It'll be a nice victory ceremony don't you think?"

"Why?" Lars asked. "Why can't you let us go home?"

"Why did you steal my ship?" Emerald asked. "Why did you put me under all this pressure, why did you almost kill me multiple times, why did you almost get me shattered?"

"Please?" Lars asked softly. "Let me save my crew, let me go home."

"I refuse to pity you." Emerald said. "I'm an admiral, this is what I do. I capture rebels and make an example out of them."

"And show off to all the other Emeralds?" Lars asked, rolling his eyes.

"There are no other Emeralds fool." Emerald said. "Why do you think I serve more then one court?"

"Cause you're just that concieted?" Lars asked.

"Someone's snippy." Emerald said. "Emeralds are very rare gems, the conditions for making them must be perfect."

"Well congrats. As far as I know I'm the only pink zombie in existence." Lars said. His head was killing him now.

"You off colors have made a fool out of me for so long." Emerald went on. "The diamonds were willing to shatter me, I seemed weak, flawed, imperfect, but they were wrong. You're the flaws and I'm the gem who's going to shine for years on end!"

"You're scared." Lars said.

"Of what?" Emerald said. "Everything will be normal soon! Sweet, sweet normality!"

"You're afraid of dying." Lars said, smirking. "You've been terrified this whole time."

"I have not." Emerald said. "Emeralds don't feel fear."

"I don't think you really like the diamonds." Lars said. "You're the kind of person who likes doing things her own way."

"How dare you!"

"You should join us." Lars said quietly.

"NEVER!" Emerald shrieked. "I don't know what your deluded mind thinks of me, but it's clearly wrong. I am not a traitor, I am not an off color, and you, YOU MEAN NOTHING TO ME!"

Emerald smirked at the look on Lars's face.

"Oh yes, I see I was right." She said, her voice the quietest Lars had ever heard it. "You thought that after all of our... _misadventures_ we were friends, that I actually liked you. No, you're nothing to me, just another rebel who's downfall I bring. You're not so powerful Lars of the Stars, you're just another pathetic human who just arrived at the right time to win some other freaks' respect. You are a coward, you are pathetic, you are nothing."

Lars felt as if she were shoving daggers into him. For the first time since leaving Earth he felt his old insecurites. What was he thinking trying to gain Emerald as an ally? She was an intergalactic Admiral, she was dangerous.

"Did I strike a nerve?" Emerald asked sweetly.

"You should have died at the cluster test site." Lars growled. "You should have died when you were cracked, I never should have risked myself for you."

"Mistakes were made hm?" Emerald asked.

"HOW CAN YOU BE LIKE THIS!" Lars screamed. "HOW CAN YOU BE THIS CRUEL?"

"IT'S A CRUEL WORLD!" Emerald yelled.

"New question." Lars said. "Who hurt you?"

"You did." Emerald scowled. "Stealing my ship, making me trust you!"

"No." Lars said. "Something happened before all of this."

"That's none of your buisness!" Emerald yelled. "You're trying oh so hard to be intimidating now."

"YOU SENTENCED MY CREW TO DEA-" Lars broke off coughing harshly.

"They deserve to die. They're flawed...THAT'S DISGUSTING!"

Lars realized his nose was running. Emerald was looking down at him, repulsed.

"Gems don't get sick huh?" Lars asked, some of his confidence returning.

Emerald shuddered and turned around. "Humans disgust me."

"This is nothing." Lars said. "You know humans have to eat right? Ever heard of the stomach flu?"

"STOP TALKING!" Emerald yelled.

Lars sighed. "And now I've gone and gotten my disgusting human germs all over the ship."

Emerald quickly took her hands off the controls.

"I thought you said gems can't get sick." Lars said, standing up slowly.

"They can't." Emerald said, recovering.

Lars nearly fell over again but regained his balence.

"So Emerald" Lars said. "I guess we're back to being enemies."

"We never stopped." Emerald said.

"Then I'm not sorry for this!" Lars said, kicking Emerald as hard as he could in the back of the head.

She fell forward face first into the dashboard. Lars had hoped she had cracked her gem but no such luck.

Emerald pressed a button on the dashboard and a shock went through the collar...

But it didn't feel like a shock. Lars doubled over laughing.

Emerald stared at him. That was supposed to be exremely painful.

"Guess that doesn't work on zombies." Lars said, pulling the collar off. "Have anything that does work on zombies?"

Emerald looked nervous now. Her gem glowed, she was attempting to summon her weapon.

Lars clamed his hand over it, this time tightening his grip.

"Please no." Emerald whispered. Lars froze. She thought he was going to shatter her.

"Why wouldn't I, you mean nothing to me." Lars said. He shoved her against the dashboard. "Maybe this is how my crew feels."

"I-I'm sorry!" Emerald cried. "I didn't want to!"

Lars grabbed the color and shoved it against Emerald. "I thought you were different, but I guess not. You're just another homeworld gem."

"Th-that's a good thing!"

"No. It's not" Lars said, pressing the button on the dashboard. Emerald screamed and then her form disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Lars stood there shaking. He had changed. When did he become so violent? He looked at Emerald's gem. Rage swelled in him. Shatter her gem, it would be over.

He slowly dropped to the ground. No. He couldn't. He wasn't a killer.

Lars let his head fall into his hands. His crew was potentially dead, he was stranded in space, no one on earth, _no one,_ seemed to care about him.

And Emerald. He had wanted her to become one of them so badly. Lars didn't even know why. He looked at the green gem. In a way he pitied Emerald. She had never known anything other then homeworld.

He picked up the gem, looking at his reflection in its surface. He was Lars Barriga, Lars of the Stars. He had come this far. And he had promised his crew he would get them to Earth.

Lars stood up, looking at the controls.

He would keep his promise.


	7. Chapter 7

The rutiles were sitting alone in one of many cells, waiting for their execution.

"So this is it." The one on the left said.

"I guess so." the one on the right said.

"I never thought I'd die like this." The left one said. "I thought it would be a robot that got us, not a top security public enemy number one execution."

"I kind of wish it was a robot." the right one said. "I heard that they make it really painful on purpose."

They both shivered.

In another cell Rhodonite was talking to herself, rather Ruby and Pearl were talking to each other without unfusing.

"I don't want to die!"

"It's going to be ok, Captain Lars can save us!"

"But he's probably dead too, or worse!"

"Come on! Has he failed us yet?"

"Emerald has him! And the captain was already in bad shape!"

"I still think he can save us!"

"I don't want to die..."

"Me either."

Rhodonite wrapped her arms around herself. "Where are you captain?"

Lars wasn't sure he had ever flown that fast in a spacecraft, ever. He had almost crashed a few times, it was good the rutiles had done all the flying up until that point.

Emerald's gem was still in his pocket, she hadn't reformed yet, which was good, but Lars knew it wouldn't be long.

He could see the compound now. Flourite had once told him there were special gem compounds for exeutions. If his friends were anywhere they would be here.

Lars had a feeling that the diamonds wouldn't like the zoo idea and had gone straight to the compound.

Lars landed the ship, almost steering it right into a wall. He could practically hear Emerald screaming at him.

Emerald. He needed to get her out of his head.

Lars pulled her gem out of his pocket. Nothing. She didn't seem like she'd reform any time soon.

Lars looked at the compound. It was a large cylendrical building covered in slick gray walls.

"How do I get in?" He mused. A little ways away he saw a door. Like other gem doors it had a little scanner.

This was going to be an issue. Lars didn't exactly have a gem. Lars looked down at Emerald's gem in his hand.

Lars walked over to the little scanner thingy and stood on his tiptoes. He placed Emerald's gem over his eye.

The scanner thing scanned the gem. The doors slid open.

"Well then." Lars said. "Guess it's hero time."

Lars slunk down the darkened hallways. There were no signs of other gems, and he guessed that the prisoners would be held a little farther away from the door.

There seemed to be directions but they were all written in gem.

Lars heard faint footsteps down the hallway. A trio of amethyst came down the halls with a pearl in between them.

Lars hadn't seen many pearls but this one seemed pretty fancy, plus it was yellow.

Yellow Pearl. This had to be Yellow Diamond's personal pearl.

"I can't believe that aquamarine had the nerve to say something like that." the yellow pearl was saying. "Shame Blue Diamond likes aquamarines or my diamond would have shattered her for sure! Speaking of shattering save the big one for last. It might take a while."

Lars clenched his fist. How dare they! The ones who deserved to be shattered. Lars carefully followed them down the hall.

"And now that stupid Emerald isn't responding." Yellow pearl grumbled. "I'll bet she lost that space pirate again. I swear it's almost as if she _enjoys_ having it around."

Lars looked down at the gem in his hand. Did Emerald enjoy having him around? Lars flashed back to the previous conversation. No, Emerald wanted him dead.

The only reason Lars had brought her gem was to make sure she didn't reform in the ship and escape. No way did he bring her gem to make sure she was safe.

She meant nothing to him.

Lars' eyes widened as a large arena came into veiw. It must have had thousands of seats. The ground of the arena was littered with sparkly pieces.

A sick feeling washed over Lars. This arena was for shattering gems. They let other gems _watch_. This was a _game_ to them.

"The prisoners are down there." Yellow Pearl said, pointing to a door.

Lars quickly ran down the hallway to the door. It was another scanner so Lars did what he had done before. This time a picture of Emerald flashed on the screen.

She was even scowling in her security picture Lars noted.

The prisoner chamber was even darker then the entry hall.

"Guys" Lars hissed. It's me."

"Captain?" a voice hissed.

Lars ran past cells to find Rhodonite chained in one of them.

"CAPTAIN!" she cried. "I told you he'd come!"

"I'm here." Lars said. "Let's get you out of here." He cautiously streatched his fingers towards the ominously glowing bars.

To his surprise his fingers went right through. Rhodonite's eyes widened.

"When I tried to do that I got shocked!"

"Must be a human thing." Lars said, still surprised.

"Well yay humans." Rhodonite said as Lars moved the bars enough to get through.

Once she was out, Rhodonite tacked Lars in a hug.

"I knew you'd come back for us! I just new it!"

"Still haven't failed you huh?" Lars asked.

"Not at all!" Rhodonite cried, clapping her hands. "But what happened to Emerald? Did you shatter her?"

"Well, uh..." Lars said, taking Emerald's gem out of his pocket.

"WHAT?" Rhodonite yelled. "Do you know how risky this is?"

"I know." Lars said, "but she's been pretty useful."

"Ok..." Rhodonite said nervously, eyeing the gem.

"Do you know where anyone else is being held?" Lars asked.

"I saw them take the twins down that way." Rhodonite said.

"Then we go that way."

The twins were playing rock paper scissors, a human game Lars had shown them which they honestly really liked.

"But how does paper beat rock?" The left rutile asked.

"No idea." The other responded. Maybe paper had some sort of hidden talent.

"Guys!" Lars hissed, returned Emerald's gem to his pocket. The rutiles jumped up.

"Captain!" they said together.

"Come on, there's not much time." Lars said, freeing them like he freed Rhodonite. "I set off some sort of alarm so we need to find the others and get out of here!"

"Padparadscha is down that way!" the left rutile said.

"Great." Lars said, pulling Emerald's gem out of his pocket and walking over to the scanner.

"Is that-"

"It is!"

"What is he-"

"Doing with it!"

"I hate it when you two do that." Lars said.

"Sorry." the rutiles said together.

Padparadscha was sitting silently in her cell.

"Padparadscha!" Lars said. Nothing. Then a minute later, "Captain Lars!"

Lars sighed. Some days it was like Padparadscha was living in a different reality. He didn't have time to wait for her. He picked her up and carried her out of the cell.

"Ok." Lars said. "We just need Flourite. I want you all to get back to the Incinerator and power it on. There's a landing pad on top of the facility, I'll send Flourite up there and create a diversion so she has time to get on the ship."

"Are you sure?" Rhodonite asked. "It could be risky."

"I know." Lars said. "That's why it'll be fun!"

As Lars ran down the hall he wished Sadie could see him now. It was hard to believe that he was the same guy who had cried over a lack of cell reception, tripped over a mop and ripped his pants, got his foot stuck in a door trying to kick it open, and done other embarassing things.

There was only on door left at the end of the hall. As Lars approached a siren started wailing and the lights started flashing. He didn't have much time.

Lars saw security cameras zooming in on him. He really didn't have much time.

In a secure room above the prison the diamonds were watching Lars run down the hallway.

"We should put him in the zoo." Blue Diamond said. "He's very entertaining."

"It's hard to believe that a puny human was the cause of this much trouble." Yellow diamond said. "And he looks different then the last time I saw him."

"Yes. He's pink. Like a rose quartz. He's suddenly as brave as one too." Blue diamond said.

"Wait." Yellow diamond said. "Do you think-"

"A fusion?"

Lars heard Yellow diamond's voice crackle over a speaker.

"All units, catch that fusion! Don't let it leave!"

Lars sped up. Had flourite escaped on her own? He wasn't going to let them hurt her.

Lars heard footsteps behind him. The soldiers were faster then he thought. He suddenly realized why they were finding him so fast. The cameras. He needed to get out of their view.

He got his chance when he saw a pannel in the wall. Was it some sort of electric grid?

With all his strength Lars pried the pannel off the wall. His hunch was right, it was an electric grid. Lars looked at the complicated wires and blinking lights. No way did he have the skills to undo all of this. He need something to break it, a rock maybe...

He had a rock. He looked down at Emerald's gem in his hand.

With all his strength Lars shoved Emerald's gem into the pannel. Sparks flew everywhere and Lars was blasted back.

The lights went out and the only light remaining was the slowly dimming glow of Emerald's gem. It was wedged in the pannel.

Lars had landed on his back and was staring at the ceiling. Why was that one tile a little crooked? It was bugging him...was it an airduct?

By the time the amethyst guards got there Lars was long gone. One of them pulled Emerald's gem out of the pannel causing more sparks to fly.

Directly above him Lars was cursing his lack of upper body strength. It had almost taken everything he had to pull himself up.

Lars scrambled through the airduct. It suddenly sloped downwards and Lars screamed as he tumbled down the tunnel.

Finally he hit a pannel and he fell out of the airducts into a room with a massive containment cell.

"AAAAAGH!" Lars yelled as he fell.

"Captain...Lars!" Flourite said happily.

"Ow...Flourite! Let's get you out of here."

Lars knew he wasn't large enough to move the bars enough for Flourite. After a quick inspection of the room he saw another pannel and proceeded to yank them out until the bars snapped off.

"Go go go!" Lars hissed. He could hear footsteps.

Flourite moved as fast as she could towards the stairwell.

"I'm...not...going...to make...it." Flourite said. "Go...captain...make...it...home...for me."

"I'm not leaving you alone to die!"

Flourite smiled sadly. "I'm...never...alone."

"No." Lars said, eyes filling with tears.

"Go...Captain."

"No!" Lars said. "I'm not-"

The door flew open and the guards ran in.

"Do it...for them." Flourite said, looking up towards the stairwell.

"No!" Lars yelled, running forward.

Flourite swung her massive body into the wall. Chunks of the ceiling began to fall. The amethyst jumped back as the whole ceiling caved.

Flourite gave Lars one last smile before she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"NO!" Lars screamed.

The ceiling kept falling and Lars was forced to retreat up the stairwell, tears falling.

"Where's Flourite?" Rhodonite asked, as Lars boarded the ship.

Lars shook his head, crying to hard to talk.

"No." Padparadscha said. "No no no!" It was impossible to tell if she was in real time or just seeing the past events.

"We can't leave her!" Padparadscha screamed. "NO! FLOURITE!"

Lars pulled Padparadscha close to him. "She gave herself up for us. We need to take the headstart she gave us."

With heavy hearts the off colors pulled their ship into orbit.

Lars must have drifted off because when he opened his eyes there was no sign of the compound. Padparadscha was still asleep in his arms.

"Thank you Flourite." Lars said softly. "I'll make sure they see Earth."

Emerald was pacing back in forth in the destiny destroyer's command chamber. The diamonds had been sympathetic to her cause, they had given her one more chance.

Emerald slammed her fists down onto the dashboard. That damn space pirate! How dare he injure her and steal her ship again! He had used her gem! He had-

Emerald's form glitched violently. She screamed silently. Once her form solidified, it almost seemed to glow.

Ever since she had reformed she had felt different. She no longer seemed perfect. She was...flawed.

"What did he do to me." She muttered.


	8. Chapter 8

The atmosphere in the Sun Incinerator had taken on a thick silence. Lars couldn't believe he had let this happen. Flourite had been one of the most harmless gems Lars had ever met.

All she had wanted was to live in harmony as herself. She had given up her one chance of ever getting that for Lars. Lars of all people!

Didn't she know what a horrible person Lars was? Didn't she know what a waste that was? Lars should have been the one to die.

"Captain, don't blame yourself." Padparadscha said. Again, Lars couldn't tell if she was picking up on his past thoughts or was actually in real time.

"I'll blame myself if I want to." Lars said. "It was my fault we were captured in the first place. I stopped thinking Emerald was dangerous, and I started thinking that she would go easy on us."

"I saw you would do that." Padparadscha said quietly, "but I also saw telling you would make you feel sad."

Lars stared at her. Was it possible that Padparadscha could sometimes see the future? And now Lars was certain that she was in real time. Maybe traumatizing events like this was enough to shock Padparadscha into a normal timeline.

"Why then?" Lars asked. "Why didn't you tell me!"

"I don't know." Padparadscha said softly.

The two sat in silence as the other off colors continued to pilot the ship.

"Did I ever tell you about Sadie?" Lars asked. Padparadscha shook her head. "Well she's the kind of person who would sacrifice herself for her friends. Like Flourite did. But if it were Sadie instead of me, she would find a way to keep going, I don't know what to do now. I'm not sure what happened to Emerald, and the Diamonds are aware of us now. Maybe I thought I could do this once, maybe I...I don't know."

Padparadscha sat there silently.

"Padparadscha?" Lars asked.

"I'm getting a vision! Captain Lars will blame himself for what happened to Flourite!"

Lars smiled sadly. "Thanks Padparadscha."

"I JUST DID THAT!" Emerald screamed at the blinking signs on the Destiny Destroyer's screens. They were blinking and telling her to recalibrate the weight the ship was carrying.

"STOP MOVING!" Emerald commanded, typing on a holographic keyboard. "There, I recalibrated the stupid...OH COME ON!" she yelled as the signs blinked back on.

"Stupid stupid stupid." Emerald muttered, typing it in again. "AAAAAAGH! THERE ARE TWO GEMS ON THIS SHIP YOU IDIOTIC COMPUTER! STOP TELLING ME THERE ARE MORE!" Emerald kicked the dashboard.

The signs continued to blink.

"RECALIBRATE THIS!" Emerald shrieked, switching off all warning systems. She punched the dashboard which was starting too look a little more then battered.

"This is your fault." Emerald said, turning back to the containment cell. "I should have left you to be shattered if you weren't so precious to that pirate. And don't look so relaxed! I only extended your lifetime briefly! I will shatter all of you shortly."

The warning signs blinked back on.

"WHAT?!" Emerald yowled. "I TURNED YOU OFF! DAMN MACHINE! I'LL SHATTER YOU! WHY CAN'T YOU WORK LIKE YOU WERE MADE TO! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE FLAWED-"

Emerald's form crackled violently. "WHY-W-HY D-DO YOU-HA-HAVE TO B-BE BRO-KEN!" She yelled as her form wavered.

She fell backwards wheezing.

She looked up to see several pairs of eyes staring down at her in concearn.

"I d-d-don't want your pity." Emerald growled, slowly recovering. "It doesn't matter what that pirate did to me, it can be fixed and I will be flawless once more."

"We're nearing earth." Rhodonite said. "Only a few days now."

"I thought it would feel different." A rutile said. "I still feel sad."

Lars nodded. He couldn't imagine telling Steven that he had let Flourite get shattered. Not even in space could Lars do something right.

Could he go back to Earth like this? He had not imagined returning even more pitiful then when he left.

"Let's land somewhere for the night." Lars said. "We all need a rest."

The other gems nodded. Padparadscha nodded a minute later. It seemed she had returned to whatever strange time zone she was usually in.

From the surface of the planet they had landed on Lars could see the galaxy where Earth was located. So close to home, yet home had never felt farther.

Lars could tell that the off colors were trying to be strong, but every so often he would catch one of them crying. Why did these things have to happen? He always brought some sort of misery to people. Misery and chaos.

More and more often Lars found himself wishing that he was more like Steven. Steven created chaos and brought misery (usually to Lars) but people loved him for it. He had some kind of magical destiny and everything.

Lars was just the guy-who-died-and-was-saved-by-Steven-good-job-Steven-lets-leave-Lars-all-alone-in-space-now-and-Lars-stole-a-ship-and-made-a-psychotic-enemy-and-oh-yeah-killed-one-of-his-best-friends.

If Lars was going to be honest that title sounded a lot cooler before he thought it out.

And if he was going to continue to be honest there was no way he could go home and face everyone after killing Flourite.

He just couldn't.

Emerald kicked a chair across the room for the seventh time. The Destroyer kept picking up the Incinerator then losing it.

"WHERE IS IT!" she screamed. She turned back to the containment cell. "You're doing this aren't you? You're hiding them!"

Emerald's form began to waver again.

"I'm...not...doing...anything." Flourite said.

"LIAR!" Emerald screamed, form glitching. "It was a mistake to bring you! I should have let the diamonds shatter you like they wanted and taken something useful along instead!"

The warning sign blinked back on.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Emerald yelled.

"Calm...down." Flourite said soothingly.

"NO!" Emerald yelled.

"You're...only...hurting...yourself."

"What do you know?" Emerald growled.

"I...know...more...about...being...an...off...color...then...you."

Emerald's jaw dropped. "HOW DARE YOU!"

"I...meant...no...offense."

"Oh really?" Emerald asked.

"I...suggest...changing...the...weight...to...seven...gems...I...count...as...six."

"You...what?" Emerald asked.

"Six...gems."

Emerald quickly counted the gems on Flourite's body. "I thought only two or three gems could fuse!"

"Not...at..all." Flourite said chuckling.

Emerald stared at her prisoner. "You're six gems!"

"Yes."

"Six different gems?"

"Yes."

"THATS ILLEGAL!"

"Nothing's...illegal...about...love."

Emerald snorted.

"What's...so...funny?"

"Gems don't love each other!" Emerald said. "That's rediculous!"

Flourite's face shifted into an expression of sympathy. "You...poor...thing."

"I SAID NO PITY!" Emerald said.

"You...don't...know...how...love...feels?"

"Why would I?" Emerald asked.

"You've...never...fused?"

"There are no other Emeralds around to fuse with so of course not." Emerald said. "I'm not a law breaking off color freak!"

"You...can...let...people...in."

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Emerald screamed. "I don't need anyone!" She turned back to the dashboard.

"Do..the...diamonds...love...you?"

"They need me." Emerald said.

"Then...why...are...you...so...scared?"

Lars opened his eyes. He had fallen asleep only to have repeated nightmares of him leaving Flourite behind over and over again.

"Captain?" Rhodonite asked.

"Huh?" Lars asked. Then he felt something wet slide down his face.

"You're crying." Rhodonite said gently, sitting down next to him. "Are you ok?"

Lars stared at her before completely falling apart.

"NO! NOTHING'S OK! IT'S MY FAULT! I KILLED HER!" he fell forward sobbing.

Rhodonite pulled him closer to her.

"It's not your fault." She said, tearing up. "We all underestimated Emerald."

The two cried together for a minute.

"B-but Flourite would want us to keep going." Rhodonite said. "So that's what we'll do! If you want to captain, otf course you're still in charge."

Lars wiped the tears away. "Then we're going to Earth."

Emerald slowly stood up. She had suffered another glitch attack.

She almost fell over again but Flourite nudged her upright.

"Don't touch me." Emerald growled.

"Let..us..help...you." Flourite said. "We...can...show...you...how...to...live...like...this."

"No!" Emerald hissed. "No you can't!"

"Our...captain...helped...us...come...out...into...the...open...he...can...help..you..too."

"NO HE CAN'T!" Emerald howled. "HE DID THIS TO ME!"

"Maybe...this...happened...for...a...reason." Flourite said.

"NO!"

"I...think...you're...no...more...broken..then...you...were...before."

Emerald flushed a deep green. "How dare you...I..." she trailed off.

"You're...hurting"

Tears fell from Emerald's eye. "No...you're wrong. I...I'm fine."

She slumped against the wall next to the cell. Flourite reached through the bars and patted her head.

Emerald looked up at her. "Just tell that captain if I ever catch him he's gonna pay."

Flourite looked at her in surprise.

"Oh no." Emerald said. "I accidently hit the switch to turn off the bars. And now the fusion has me pinned."

Flourite nodded slowly.

"Oh no, now the fusion's set a course to the sun incinerator and I am helpless to stop it." Emerald said, pressing buttons. "Curse you fusion."

"We'll...help...you...Emerald."

Emerald grunted and turned back to the dashboard.

Lars slowly dragged himself back to the ship. His head hurt which was understandable, he had just spent the last half hour crying...

Lars gasped.

"FLOURITE!" that was Padparadscha. The smaller gem raced towards Flourite. Lars followed suit.

"How..what?"

"I...escaped." Flourite said. "It was...six...on...one."

"Wow." Lars said.

"Emerald...is...alright." Flourite said.

"What do I care?" Lars asked.

"You...don't...know...the...full...story."

Emerald massaged her temples. She was probably going to pay for this. What had possessed her to let the permafusion go?

And no way did she need love! She was an Emerald! And she had still only extended the permafusion's life by a little. She would still shatter them in the end.

 _Emerald lifted her head slowly to look up at the diamonds._

 _"I'll admit, this was unnexpected." Yellow Diamond said. "We have underestimated the Lars. We believe he is a fusion of an unkown gem and rose quartz. He is stronger then anyone thought."_

 _"It is now a priority to capture him" Blue Diamond had chimed in._

 _"On the positive side we did capture on of the freaks rose quartz has used as a crew."_

 _Emerald didn't know what had stirred in her, the fusion seemed so sad and scared._

 _"I want the fusion your clarities." Emerald said. "She could be useful."_

She would never admit it but she had turned the voltage down on the jail cell on purpose.

 **A/N Heyyyyy! Thanks for all the favorites and reviews! As you can see Flourite is fine so there's no cause for alarm :)**

 **Alright that's all for now, leave a reveiw pls, it makes me happy and I'll see you next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

Lars sighed. A batillion sent by the diamonds had been sent to intercept them and he had been forced to retreat farther away from the Earth.

So close. He had been so close.

Lars had no idea why the diamonds were taking so much interest in him now. It wasn't like he started an intergalactic war.

"I wish it was just Emerald." He sighed. "It was easier with one gem after us."

Ever since Flourite had returned there had been no sign of Emerald. Lars kept telling himself he wasn't worried about her but it would be nice to at least see her once.

"Current coordinates?" Lars asked.

"You asked two minutes ago." An annoyed rutile said. The fact that their journey had been so close to ending but now had grown longer was not sitting well with the crew.

Lars could understand. He had talked about Earth for so long and had probably gotten the off colors excited. He knew they had longed for a place where they would be safe for so long.

Rhodonite had been silent the longest which was strange. Usually the fusion was the one that wouldn't stop talking.

"Everything Ok Rhodonite?" Lars asked.

"Well not real- Yes everything's fine." Rhodonite said.

Lars raised an eyebrow.

"Well it seems that in the ship's current state we're not going to make it to Earth." Rhodonite said. "We're going to have to stop to make repairs."

Lars sighed. "How long will that take?"

"I-it's a bigger issue then that." Rhodonite said nervously. "We need to find new parts. We're going have to land on the nearest gem colony."

"Ok, no biggie." Lars said.

"The closest stop is homeworld." a rutile said.

"Oh." Lars said. "Well we sneaked away once, we can do it again."

"But it's the Celestial Celebration!"

"I'm getting deja vu." Lars said.

"Every five thousand years pink comets fall past homeworld and the legend is if you're caught under one with someone else you've found your true match!" Rhodonite said. "It's er, where I was made."

"Oh." Lars said. "So it's like valentine's day."

"Like what?"

"Never mind." Lars said. "Anyways, how big is this celebration?"

"It's the biggest!" Rhodonite said. "Gems from all over come!"

"Great." Lars said.

"And the best part is that fusions are allowed!" Rhodonite said.

"So that means..." Lars said.

"WE'RE GOING!" Rhodonite screamed. "Ok so Padparadscha can fuse with the rutiles and captain Lars can fuse with whoever he wants, he's the captain so he can choose..."

Lars chuckled at the sight of Rhodonite "planning." It had been a while since he had seen her this excited. He had to admit though, this party did seem like fun.

"Do I have to?" Emerald groaned. "I don't want to go to some stupid fusion party."

Ever since the loss of the Sun Incinerator parties were just another painful reminder.

"The Diamonds request that the highly esteemed Admiral be there showing her support to her beloved diamonds." Blue Pearl said.

Emerald didn't know what to make of this Pearl. She seemed to love the Diamonds and hate the Diamonds and expect everyone to love the diamonds but hate them all at the same time.

"Fine." Emerald grumbled. "But I want as many guards as I can get. Those off colors love fusion and I'm willing to bet that they'll show up. Pathetic."

"Thank you Admiral." Blue Pearl said as the transmission cut out.

Emerald groaned and placed her head in her hands. She couldn't possibly last a whole party. The glitching attacks were coming more and more frequently and if something were to happen in front of the diamonds she would be exposed as flawed.

The diamonds would capture her and shatter her, and worst of all she would never get the chance to strangle Lars or see her beloved Sun Incinerator ever again!

Emerald slowly got to her feet. No more whining. Time to be the perfect, unflawed, servant to the diamonds she always had been.

But deep down she knew, right when this whole space pirate fiasco had started, she had changed.

"Ok, we can land there." Lars said. They had found a quiet corner of homeworld with minimal gem activity.

The rutiles carefully brought the plane down without revealing their position.

"Another excellent landing." Lars said. The rutiles beamed.

Rhodonite was bouncing up and down in her seat barely containing her excitement.

Lars smiled. Both Rhodonite and Flourite hadn't stopped smilling since Lars gave them the go ahead on attending the party.

"You...can...finally...see...homeworld...in...all...its...beauty...captain." Flourite said.

"Yeah, maybe I can." Lars said. "But I think your other hideout was lovely too."

"No it wasn't!" a rutile said.

"It was horrible!" the other said.

"Guys, that was sarcasm." Lars said.

"Sarcasm?"

"I think it's one of captain Lars' weapons!"

Lars sighed. Close enough.

As they exited the Incinerator the off colors talked about how they wanted to show Lars all the best parts of homeworld.

Lars found it sort of sweet. He couldn't wait until they got to Earth. He would definetly have fun playing tour guide.

"We land on homeworld!" Padparadsca said, "but we forget to turn the shields on, oh no!"

"Crap!" Lars yelled, running back to the ship. "Thanks Padparadscha!"

She had more uses then it seemed, clearly.

Blue and Yellow diamond sat in a balcony above the area they would be using for their celebration.

Most gems didn't keep track of time, and the few who did would not call out the diamonds on the fact that this was not the correct time for the Celestial Celebration.

The idea to fake the ceremony occured to them after Emerald had lamented about the fact that certain gems in the rose quartz fusion's crew were also fusions. They would surely want to attend a celebration that celebrated something so dear to them.

The diamonds had intended to bring the ship down back when their battillion had cornered the Incinerator not to long ago, but the off colors had escaped.

It had been a risky move, asking Emerald to participate. The diamonds were concearned that she would try to capture Lars for herself while everything had become so much bigger then her personal tirade against the theif.

Rose quartz and whatever strange being she had fused with had to be brought to justice at the diamond's hand.

It would be more believable to the other gems if Emerald attended. The admiral was well known in the community and had no shortage of admirerers.

Emerald messed with the clasp on the more formal cape she had decided to wear to the celebration. Emerald had almost been certain that the diamonds were wrong about the timing for the celebration, it really shouldn't be for another 15 years, but Emerald knew that another complaint would spell disaster for her.

She couldn't help wondering if the off colors would show. Those pathetic freaks seemed to love fusion more then life itself and would most likely not pass up an oppertunity like this.

Emerald was secretly hoping they would show. The diamonds had informed her that she needed to step back from her efforts to capture the off colors and had been told that Lars' actions were strictly diamond buisness now.

Emerald refused to comply. She had not wastd all this time to step aside now! She would bring down these rebels and no one was going to tell her she couldn't! They had stolen her ship, they had started this with her!

Emerald knew what the Diamonds truely feared from her was weakness. She would admit they had good reason to be doubtful. She had allowed the pirate to escape several times, and had let a valuable prisoner go free.

Emerald had told herself she would no longer allow herself to remain weak, she needed to shove her feelings aside. Deep down she longed to see them complete their mission, to prove that there was a place that the diamonds didn't control.

And if they hadn't done it with her ship maybe she wouldn't be trying to stop them.

"Woah." Lars said. A ruby, twelve times taller then it should be walked by, its body glistening with gems. "That's so many!"

"That's nothing!" Rhodonite said. "There are so many better things to see then some boring old rubies! No offense." she added, speaking to herself.

Lars was actually enjoying this. He, Padparadscha and Rhodonite had gone to check out the celebration while the rutiles and Flourite stayed behind. (Flourite had surprised them all by saying that she didn't need to attend a celebration to love herself and just knowing it was going on was enough.)

"A giant ruby!" Padparadscha yelled. Lars had hoped all the sights would help Padparadscha enter a normal time zone but so far she was enjoying all the sights at her own pace.

A massive amathyst walked by. Lars counted eleven different gems. "How can that many gems even fuse?"

"I don't know." Rhodonite giggled. "That just makes it more special!"

A massive dome opened like a flower at the top of the pavillion they were in.

"Its so we can see the comets." Rhodonite said.

"A huge amethyst!" Padparadscha said.

"Yep." Lars said, ruffling her hair. Like this, homeworld almost seemed peaceful.

Fusions were all over but one thing Lars noticed was that all of the fusions were made of the same gem.

"I thought any gems could fuse." Lars said.

"They can." Rhodonite replied. "But it's illegal to fuse with a gem from a different court, and the diamonds are careful to keep gems in groups of the same type. We're allowed to fuse, but...it's still frowned upon."

Lars scowled. He hated the diamonds. How dare someone put restrictions on a party! Not cool!

"We should find seats." Rhodonite said. "We don't want to miss the comets."

Emerald sat on one of the balconies survaying the party. Boring, boring, boring. Fusion was pointless, stupid, and kind of a cheap weapon when things came down to it.

Emerald would have thought that the diamonds would frown upon this sort of thing. Many of these fusions were larger then they were. If a fusion decided to rebel could the diamonds stop them?

Emerald messed with the cape again. She missed comfertable clothes. She was basically a toy for the diamonds to put on display right now.

Emerald squinted down at the gathering crowd. No sign of those pathetic off colors yet. If they showed up she had to find them first.

The diamonds were willing to blow up Sunny.

It was beautiful.

The comets hadn't even started yet but when Lars looked up at the sky he could see almost too many star systems to comprehend.

He had never seen anything like this on Earth. In a way getting trapped in space was one of the best things that had ever happened to him.

"Pretty cool huh?" Rhodonite said.

"Yeah." Lars replied.

"Wait til' you see the comets! They're all pink and sparkly, it kind of reminds me of your hair."

"Cool." Lars said, trying to picture it. He really wished Sadie was here now. She would have loved to see this.

More and more often Lars had been wondering how she was doing. Was she still sobbing her eyes out over his death? She should be.

The more likely option was that she had moved on because Steven had downplayed Lars' death, stupid brat.

But hopefully Sadie hadn't moved on too much.

"The beatiful sky will cause Lars to think about his lost lover." Padparadscha sighed dreamily.

"Lost lover?" Rhodonite perked up.

"What?" Lars asked, blushing a deep pink. "No, it's not like that, we're just friends..."

Rhodonite smirked knowingly. "I was just friends once."

"SHUT UP!" Lars yelled, shoving her. Rhodonite snorted with laughter.

Emerald almost felt herself dozing off, that was how bored she was. Stupid party, why couldn't it just end already-

Emerald sat up quickly. She looked over the edge of the balcony. She was right. The pirate was just down there, acting like he was enjoying this mess.

The time to strike was now.

Lars looked up at the stars. "That one looks like...a hot dog!"

"A what?" Rhodonite asked.

"It's a kind of Earth food." Lars said. "It's good, trust me. You can try it when we get to Earth."

"I can't wait." Rhodonite said.

"It's a hotdog." Padparadscha spoke up.

Lars sighed. It was nice to relax for a change.

"Look at that!" Rhodonite said. "A sapphire fusion! Look Padparadscha!"

Padparadscha looked up at it. "Amazing." she said quietly. It seemed that seeing gems similar to herself had jolted her into real time.

"Yes, so amazing." A voice said drily. Lars turned to see Emerald leaning against a pillar behind them.

"Emerald." Lars said.

"Don't even think about running." Emerald purred. "I can call one of those fusions whenever I want to. I don't think you'll get far."

Rhodonite looked to be on the urge of a break down. Padparadscha seemed to still be in awe.

"Come with me." Emerald said. "The diamonds have been very anxious to see you."

"Oh no no no." Lars said. "We're not going anywhere."

"I'm offering you the easy way." Emerald said, starting to lose her patience.

"Well I'm returning it!" Lars said defiantly.

"What?"

"I don't know. It sounded cooler in my head." Lars said. He needed to keep Emerald talking to give Rhodonite and Padparadscha time to get away. "So, what are you doing here?"

"WHAT AM I DOING HERE?!" Emerald screamed. "I have to be here on behalf of the diamonds obviously."

"Oh." Lars said. "That's nice."

"NICE?!" Emerald screamed. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT A DRAG THIS IS?" suddenly Emerald's form glitched violently.

"Woah." Lars said. "Are you ok?"

"YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Emerald yowled. "YOU DESTROYED MY GEM!"

Rhodonite picked up Padparadscha and sprinted towards the exit.

"RUN!" Lars yelled. Emerald made no move to stop them.

"Let them run." Emerald said. "They wouldn't dare leave without their precious captain. You two." Emerald said, gesturing to the ruby and amethysy fusions. "Make sure this criminal doesn't escape."

Lars swallowed nervously as the two massive fusions flanked him on either side.

He needed some kind of miracle.

Suddenly there was a pink glow and something fluttered down from Lars' head.

"What the..." Emerald said.

Lars sighed. This was going to take some getting used to.

The thing that had fallen from his head was a note. Lars looked at it.

 _Dear Lars, It's a good thing you're not on homeworld any more, things are about to go down! Love Steven._

And then all hell broke lose.


	10. Chapter 10

A beeping sound came from nearby. Suddenly shattering robonoids came flying into the dome.

"What the!" Lars yelled.

The robonauts began firing at the gems.

"HOLY CRAP!" Lars yelled, running for cover. Even though he didn't have a gem he could still get caught in the crossfire.

Lars had thought Steven didn't believe in shattering gems. The robonuats didn't seem to be shattering gems, just zapping gems and causing their forms to dissapate.

But Lars did see a few unlucky gems take blasts right to their gems.

Emerald was caught between three different robonoids. Even if the bots weren't aiming to kill the odds of her surviving three blasts were slim.

Emerald backed herself up against a wall. Could she try to run? She knew what these robots did, they were homeworld weapons. She had never been on the recieving end of one.

"EMERALD!" a voice yelled. Lars sprinted into the ring of robonoids as they began to scan...

And shoved her face into his chest.

"HEY!" Emerald yelled, trying to pull away.

"STOP STRUGGLING!" Lars yelled back, holding her head in place.

The robonoids scanned but didn't pick anything up. As soon as they moved on Lars grabbed Emerald's hand and dragged her to safetey.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

"I just saved your life. You're welcome." Lars said.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!" Emerald yelled.

"I don't know! Steven must be doing it!" Lars yelled back.

"Then unfuse and tell him to stop!" Emerald cried.

"Unfuse?" Lars asked. "Steven's back on earth."

"So you're not a fusion of the Steven?" Emerald asked.

"That's what you thought?" Lars snorted. "Nope. I am 100% Lars."

"Yippee." Emerald sighed. "Anyways make the Steven stop! Aren't you two aquainted? Why is he attacking you?"

"He thinks I left homeworld a long time ago." Lars said.

"So there's no way to stop this." Emerald said.

"Not that I'm aware of." Lars said. "Thank god the crew's already on the ship. They should be out of danger."

"Well lucky them...SUNNY'S BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME?" Emerald screamed.

"Bingo bongo" Lars smirked.

"AAAAAGH!" Emerald screamed, kicking the wall.

Lars could hear the robonoids outside the building. "We should get to higher ground."

"Fine." Emerald sighed, walking over to a panel. "Are you coming or not?"

"Didn't think I was invited." Lars said, dashing after her.

As the doors slammed shut the two were enclosed in darkness.

"What is this place?" Lars asked.

"You mean you can't tell?" Emerald asked sweetly.

"IT'S DARK!"

"Fine, hang on a second." Emerald said. A green glow filled the room.

"Wow." Lars said, looking around. "I still don't know what this place is."

"It's an escape route." Emerald said. "Only the most important gems can use it. They were built back during the rebellion so that if there was an attack the important gems could escape."

"Oh." Lars said. "So this place is for important gems?"

"Yes."

"Then what are you doing here?"

Emerald's foot slammed into Lars' stomach. "I AM AN IMPORTANT GEM!"

Lars laughed/coughed. "Well then why are you so important?"

"Because I was one of the finest warriors and pilots in the gem war." Emerald said. "I was unbeatable especially with my ship."

"Ok." Lars said. "Is that why you want it back so badly? Sentimental value?"

"Yes and no." Emerald said, dragging Lars up a flight of stairs. "It's a very expensive and powerful ship. One of a kind. The diamonds are not thrilled that it's missing. If I crash it or destroy it the concequences will be brutal."

"They would destroy one of their only Emeralds just for a ship?" Lars asked incrediously.

"Yes, the diamonds love showing off their power, and like all other gems I am expendable."

"Really?" Lars said teasingly. "I thought you were flawless."

A look of pain flashed onto Emerald's face.

"What? Did I hit a nerve?" Lars asked. Emerald turned away from him. "What?"

"You're crueler then I thought." Emerald said.

"What? What did I do?" Lars asked.

"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Emerald screamed. Her form glitched. "YOU RUINED ME! YOU DID THIS TO ME!" as she screamed her form dissapated and reformed.

"Woah hey!" Lars said, grabbing her shoulder. Instantly the glitching stopped. "I did that?"

"When you shoved my gem into that electrical pannel." Emerald said. "Now my gem thinks its cracked."

"Is it?" Lars asked.

"No. And Rose Quartzes can't heal it." Emerald scowled.

"Sorry." Lars said weakly.

"SORRY?" Emerald yelled. "SORRY? IF THE DIAMONDS FIND OUT THEY'LL SHATTER ME! THEY HAVE NO USE FOR ME NOW I'M FLAWED!"

"You're one of us." Lars said softly. "You're an off color."

"I am not! How dare you!" Emerald said.

"Come with us." Lars said, holding out his hand. "You'll be safe with us. We'll take you to Earth."

"I don't want to go to Earth." Emerald growled.

"Then we'll drop you off at Neptune, but come with us!" Lars said.

"Why?" Emerald said. "Why do you suddenly want me on your side?"

"Because I don't think I could live with myself if something happened to you because of me." Lars said.

Emerald's face softened. She reached out to take his hand.

The walls of the tunnel started shaking.

"What's happening?" Lars asked.

"An escape pod's taking off. It must be the diamonds, they're leaving!" Emerald said. She grabbed Lars and dragged him towards another door. Suddenly the shaking stopped.

"They're gone." Emerald said softly. "They left without me."

The panels in the room were still blinking. On one of them was an image of the sun incinerator.

"Oh no." Lars said. "They found them."

"Then we don't have much time." Emerald said. "I can reroute the ship to buy you some time."

"You would do that?" Lars asked, awestruck.

"To save my ship, yes." Emerald said. "Don't let me catch you again pirate. Now go!"

"I can't leave you!"

"GO!" Emerald yelled, and Lars sprinted away.

When Lars arrived at his ship there was no sign of the diamond's ship. Emerald must have done whatever it was she was going to do.

"CAPTAIN!" Rhodonite screamed. "YOU'RE OK!"

"Yeah I am no time to talk preapre for takeoff!" Lars said quickly. "The diamonds are coming!

That snapped the crew into actions and within seconds they had lifted off of homeworld and were speeding through space.

"I am so so so so sorry Captain!" Rhodonite said. "It's all my fault. It's my fault any of this happened."

"How is it your fault?" Lars asked.

"I was so stupid! I was so excited for the celebration and wanted to show you it so badly that I didn't realized the celebration was for another fifteen years!"

"So it was a trap." Lars said. "A very elaborate trap."

"Why are they so intent on catching us?" A rutile asked.

Lars thought back to something Emerald said. "The diamonds think that I'm a fusion of Steven and something else."

"Well it does make sense." Rhodonite said. "I don't think the diamonds know you were revived, and you could be a fusion between a rose quartz and the old Lars!"

"I guess I could." Lars said.

"And how did you know the diamonds were coming! How did you get here in time?" a rutile asked.

"Emerald." Lars said. "She delayed the diamonds. I think she's sort of on our side now."

The crew was silent.

"Do you think they'll shatter her?" Rhodonite asked in a small voice.

"Emerald's smart. I'm sure she can come up with an alibi." Lars said. "Now then, let's get to Earth! For real this time!

But deep down Lars couldn't help feeling like he had done something horrible by leaving Emerald behind.


	11. Chapter 11

Even though the diamond's height was already imensely larger then other gems, they still sat in chairs that seemed to make them even taller while interogating gems.

The zircon they were consulting was terrified to say the least. Zircons weren't too brave in general, they were fact based gems and the chances of actually having to speak to a diamond were slim.

This zircon was not prepared in the least.

Being one of the many zircons that worked for yellow diamond this zircon had only been chosen since it was one of the best analitical gems they had. Plus this zircon had been around when rose quartz was forming a rebellion.

Emerald pitited this particular zircon. She could see it shaking.

Emerald had been asked to watch this session since she had been placed back in charge of tracking the sun incinerator. The diamonds had decided that the most efficient plan of attack was to keep Emerald at the front of the search and the more dangerous weapons at the back.

Emerald was surprised that the diamonds had not yet discovered that she had allowed the off colors to escape. Either she was very good at covering up her tracks or the diamonds were waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"Well?" Yellow Diamond asked, jolting Emerald from her thoughts. "Does this Rose Quartz fusion act like the rose quartz of the past? Was it a happy fusion or did rose quartz force another gem to do her bidding?"

"Well," the zircon said nervously. "I'm not sure it is a fusion. It seems to be an organic life form and not posess a gem at all."

"So you're saying she fused with a human." Yellow diamond said.

"I'm saying the being you're tracking is a human." the zircon said. "Rose quartz may have nothing to do with this human, except for a small detail, nothing important. Moving on-"

"WHAT DETAIL!" Yellow Diamond roared. The zircon recoiled.

"Oh, o-of course your clarity. It seems to me that both rose quartz and the human came to homeworld with the aquamarine." the zircon said, summoning an image of Steven and Lars at the original trial. "But as you can see the human looks different now." the zircon summoned an image of the space pirate.

Yellow diamond nodded. "Go on"

"My theory is that the human encountered some form of bodily harm, perhaps even died." the zircon said. "Rose quartz must have resseracted the human which gave it new abilities which is why the human looks different and has not yet persished in space."

Blue diamond nodded thoughtfully. "Could the human be a spy for rose quartz?"

"A good guess my diamond, but there does not seem to be a way for rose quartz to contact this human so there may be no connection between them at all."

"Impossible!" Yellow Diamond said. "Rose quartz must be behind this! Why else is she taking the time to bring a human back from the verge of death?"

"A rose quartz has never healed a human before." the zircon said. "And my theory is that rose quartz sent this undead human as a diversion for a larger attack. Had you not been so absorbed with catching the human you may have been able to stop the larger attack."

"Rose quartz is smarter then we thought." Yellow Diamond said. "Why waste gems when you can create an expendeble army from humans that you can bring back again and again? It's perfect."

"What are you suggesting my diamond?" the zircon asked.

"I'm saying we capture the human and replicate it's healing values. We can use it on the humans we have in the zoo. A human army that cannot be destroyed. It's perfect!"

"There are many potential flaws in that plan." the zircon said, typing away on it's keypad.

"SILENCE!" Yellow diamond yelled. "Find some amethyst to bring us a human pearl." she said to her pearl.

Emerald watched as the small yellow gem ran out and returned a few minutes later. With her was an amethyst carrying a struggling human.

"Humans are frail, weak creatures." Yellow diamond said. "Cowardly and fragile."

The human was begging for its life, crying. Emerald turned her head away slightly. When had she lost the stomach to watch the diamonds torture their victims?

"It seems that when a human is modified by a rose quartz they gain new powers and more abilities. We don't have enough rose quartz active to use for this project so we must replicate the human's primitive use of science."

Emerald sat forward. Human science was so old. Why were the diamonds planning to use it?

"We can use the space pirate as a source and use its blood as an injection. From the human we can create an army of expendable humans. We can use our fleets to send them to earth and have a gloriously bloody human versus human fight. We won't waste any resources and it will be quite enjoyable to watch. Isn't that right Emerald?"

Emerald jumped at the sound of her name. "Oh yes my diamond. It sounds marvelous. But will it hurt the pirate?"

"We won't kill him." Yellow diamond said in what she thought was a reassuring tone. (It wasn't) "You can have the honor of doing that. We need him alive to get the resources we need."

"But my diamond." the zircon spoke up. "These humans have been raised in space. They may not be suitable for earth, or the injections might kill them!"

"Good thing we have plenty of humans." Yellow diamond said dismissively. "And if we run out we can always take more from earth. And do you know what else we have?"

"What?" the zircon asked nervously.

"Zircons who talk less. Take her away!" Yellow diamond commanded, and the zircon was dragged from the room.

"We are dismissed." Blue diamond said and Emerald rose to leave.

As Emerald walked down the halls of the building, her thoughts were in turmoil. Were the diamonds actually thinking about attempting this? It seemed like a fool's plan. There could be disasterous results.

And Lars was in danger. But what did Emerald care?

Emerald sighed. Unfourtunetly it seemed she cared a lot.

Looking around to make sure that no other gems were there Emerald snuck down to a command room.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." She muttered as she connected herself to the sun incinerator.

The screen blinked on to show the off colors looking nervously up at her.

"Oh Emerald." Lars said, clearly relaxing. "When it said the transmission was from homeworld we got a little nervous."

"You're in danger." Emerald said.

"Well duh." Lars said. "We're being hunted down in the middle of space. What else is new?"

"No, you're in real danger." Emerald said. "The diamonds want to catch you and use you to create an army of undead humans."

"What?" Lars asked. "I'm supposed to be a science project?"

"I don't have time to explain." Emerald said. "You have to stay away from all gem activity. Don't contact anyone or land anywhere."

"But what about you?" Lars asked. "We were going to rescue you."

"Don't you dare." Emerald growled. "Stay away from here and don't try to contact me. The diamonds are sure to be watching me closely." she pressed a button and the transmission ended.

As the screen went black Emerald let her head fall into her hands. She hoped that her warning was enough to keep Lars away.

As she snuck out of the control room, she didn't see the small yellow figure running off to tattle to her diamond.

"Very interesting." Yellow diamond said as yellow pearl fiinshed her report. "We already knew about her meddling with the crew of the space pirate. She's more valuable then we thought now."

"How?" Yellow Pearl asked snidely. "She's a traitor."

"She's valuable," Yellow diamond said, a cruel smile touching her lips, "as bait."

"And after we catch the human do we shatter her?" Yellow Peal asked.

"Of course." Yellow diamond said. "She's flawed anyways. "I saw her glitching like she was cracked for no reason at all. There are much finer gems then her."

Yellow Pearl cackled as Yellow Diamond set her on the ground.

"Keep an eye on her pearl." Yellow diamond commanded.

"Of course my diamond." Yellow pearl said, saluting her and striding out of the room, the massive doors sliding shut behind her.


	12. Chapter 12

Lars sat back and watched as the Sun Incinerator dove between asteroids and comets. It was kind of pretty really, he thought as he watched the brilliant lights speeding by.

The crew had discovered that the fastest way back to earth was through a series of asteroid belts and nebulas. Neither of these proved to be any trouble for the rutile twins.

Lars kept thinking of Emerald's words. Did the diamonds really want to turn him into some kind of guinea pig? Well that wouldn't be happening. Lars was no guinea pig.

After a few more loops the sun incinerator sucessfully exited the asteroid belt.

"Awesome!" Lars cheered. "That was some of the best flying I've seen yet!"

"It's getting easier." One of the rutiles said shyly. "No sweat!" the other cheered.

"I have a good feeling about this run." Lars said. "We're gonna make it this time for sure!"

Rhodonite clapped her hands. "We're so close! I can feel it!"

"We will sucessfully leave the asteroid belt." Padparadscha said.

"Heck yeah we will!" Lars cheered.

As his crew danced around him cheering Lars felt that something was missing.

"We really should have taken Emerald with us." Lars said.

"Well you heard what she said." Rhodonite said. "It's too dangerous to go back."

"Can we even trust her?" a rhutile asked. "Probably not." the other one said.

"I think we can trust her." Lars said. "She's saved us and risked herself for us."

"She's...still...in...danger...there." Flourite said. "Emerald...spared...me...I...owe...her."

"Are you saying we're going back!" Rhodonite shrieked. "When the diamonds are looking for you!"

"It would be a quick stealth mission." Lars said. "A rescue mission."

"This is insane!" Rhodonite yelled. "Let's just get back to celebrating about Earth!"

"No." Lars said. "I'm sorry guys. I don't think I can go back knowing that we pretty much left Emerald to die."

"What's with this obsession with Emerald huh?" Rhodonite yelled. "Why can't you just leave her?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Lars yelled. "We've been through too much together. It's weird not having her yell at me ok?"

Rhodonite looked down. "I'm sorry captain. I just-"

"It's ok." Lars said. "I shouldn't have yelled. I won't go back unless you all want to. Well, let's vote!"

"I...want...to...go...back." Flourite said.

"So do I." one Rhutile said. "Me too." said the other.

"I guess I do" Rhodonite sighed.

Lars waited. A minute passed. Then two.

"I want to go back too!" Padparadscha said.

"Then it's official." Lars said. "Operation rescue mission is a go!"

"There." Yellow Diamond said. The diamond's ship had picked up the sun incinerator on it's radar. "We have him now."

"Do we attack now?" a peridot asked.

"No." Yellow diamond said. "Let the human think he's winning. Then we'll strike."

The peridot nodded. "Just say the word my diamond."

Yellow Diamond connected a transmission to homeworld.

"Pearl!" she barked.

"Yes my diamond?" Yellow Pearl answered. She had long grown acustomed to Yellow Diamond's snapping.

"Has Emerald attempted any form of contact with the pirate?" Yellow diamond asked.

"No my diamond. Why?" Yellow Pearl asked.

"They're coming to get her." Yellow Diamond growled. "Alert Blue that the time for action is fast approaching."

"Yes my diamond." Yellow Pearl said, and the transmission cut out.

Yellow Pearl ran down the hall of the palaquin.

"Blue Diamond." She said as she entered the room. "Yellow Diamond wishes to inform you that the space pirate will soon be in our clutches and we will be ready to proceed with the second phase."

Blue Diamond nodded thoughtfully. "Wonderful. The humans are ready. So is the extraction chamber."

Yellow Pearl nodded. "I will inform my diamond."

She ran out of the room with her head held high. It seemed she took her job as messenger more serious then necessary.

"We're approaching homeworld." Rhodonite said nervously. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this captain."

"We're so close. Just try and hold out ok guys?" Lars said to his crew. "Rutiles, can you see any other ships?"

"It's quiet." one of them said. "It's a little weird. It's like all the ships are gone!"

"That is weird." Lars said. "Are you sure there's no one there?"

"No one at all." The other rutile said. "It's like everyone left."

"Where could they have gone?" Rhodonite asked.

"Maybe they're scared of us." Lars said teasingly. "Maybe they finally realized how dangerous we really are. Beware captain Lars and his more then dangerous crew!"

The crew looked back at him gravely.

"What? It was a joke? Not in the mood for jokes?" Lars asked.

The crew's stony expressions didn't change.

"I guess you guys aren't in the mood for jokes." Lars said. "Well, I guess one good thing comes out of no one being there. We can land wherever we want. Take us down twins!"

"I have a really really really really bad feeling about this." Rhodonite said as they descended. "I mean think about it! There's no ships in one of the busiest parts of homeworld? It doesn't make sense! Do they know we're coming?"

"How could they?" Lars asked. "They probably think we're halfway across the galaxy by now."

"There will be no ships in the landing bay. How strange!" Padparadscha spoke up.

"You said it Padparadsha." Lars said. "Strange indeed."

Emerald looked around at the empty hallways. Where had everyone gone? It was strangely quiet.

Emerald prepared to summon her weapon. Had there been some kind of attack? Should she prepare for battle?

Footsteps sounded down the hall. Yellow Pearl emerged. Emerald exhaled. Yellow Pearl or not there was someone else here.

"Pearl." She said. "Where is everyone? Is something happening?"

"Oh yes." Yellow Pearl said. "I've been looking for you. A dangerous enemy is coming to homeworld."

"A dangerous enemy?" Emerald asked. "Who?"

"The pirate." Yellow Pearl said as amethyst guards entered the room. "You know, the pink one. And do you know what he's here for?" Yellow Pearl asked.

"No" Emerald said nervously, backing up. "What would he be here for."

"You're not going to believe this." Yellow Pearl said as the amethyst circled Emerald. "Word in the palquin is, he's here for you."

Lars looked around. There wasn't a single gem anywhere. It was weird. The last time he had been to homeworld the streets had been crowded with various gems.

"Where are they?" Rhodonite asked.

"I'm not sure." Lars said worriedly. Did this mean that Emerald was somewhere else? Would he ever find her?

"Look!" A rutile yelled. A shape was running towards them.

Lars assumed a karate position. He was ready for anything.

As the figure drew nearer he started to make out features. Green hair, gem over an eye...

"EMERALD!" Lars yelled. "EMERALD OVER HERE!"

He ran towards her.

"Captain wait a minute!" Rhodonite yelled.

As Lars ran towards her his elation turned to horror. Emerald was battered and her clothes were torn.

"What happened?"

"A trap." She wheezed. "It's a trap."

There were cries of fear behind Lars. He whirled to see swarms of gems surrounding the off colors.

"No!" Lars yelled. Emerald was yanked back by a guard and Lars was shoved to the ground.

"Well well well." A voice said snidely. A yellow pearl was leering over him. "Look who decided to show up."

An amethyst's fist connected with Lars' skull and everything went black.


	13. Chapter 13

Beeping. The first thing Lars heard was beeping, like in a hospital back on Earth.

"It was all a dream." He thought. "I dreamed up everything about space and I went into a coma or something. I'm safe on Earth, I'm safe."

The beeping continued. It was annoying. Was there any way to shut it off?

Lars tried to move his arm but he couldn't. It was strapped down! Lars tugged at his other arm. It was tied down too! So were his legs, and his chest, and his head!

His eyes flew open. He was still on homeworld. He was strapped to a table. Lars blinked at the blinding lights above him. His eyes watered looking around the bright room. His head was pounding and everything hurt.

Lars struggled against the straps, but he was too weak to do anything. It felt like his body had been drained off all the strength he'd ever posessed. His tongue and throat felt like sandpaper. He couldn't cry out.

Looking around the room he saw tubes connected to strange looking machines. Following the tubes with his eyes Lars saw they lead to...himself. Some of the tubes were pumping something into him and the others were extracting what seemed to be his blood.

Lars suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous. He retched but nothing came out. How long had it been since he had eaten.

"The subject has awoken." a cool voice said. A gem in some kind of hazmat suit was standing over him, speaking to a glowing screen. "I have administered the drug and am proeeding to retrieve samples. As his heart rate is slower then the avarage human this might take longer then expected and be extremely painful for the subject.

Lars froze. Subject? The diamonds really were trying to expiriment on him. They wanted some kind of sample from him, but for what?

Lars struggled against his bounds but he had an even less affect then before.

"Don't move." the gem said. Movement will result in more pain." she lifted a large needle attatched to an even larger syringe.

Lars had never liked needles and this one seemed like something out of a nightmare.

The gem stabbed the needle into Lar's arm and he howled. Within seconds the room faded to black and he was unconcious.

*flashback*

"Come on slow poke!" Sadie yelled as she ran up the hill. "You're gonna miss it!"

Lars scowled as he dragged himself after her. It was way too early for exercise. Sadie was insane.

Lars had been woken up at four in the morning, force fed breakfest and was now being dragged outside to "see something amazing" Sadie was officially insane.

"Sadie this is crazy." Lars wheezed.

"No it's not!" Sadie said happily. "And if you don't hurry up you're going to miss it and all of this will have been for nothing!"

Sadie had always loved being outside and getting up early much more then Lars. If Lars had his way he would still be in bed, sleeping, not hiking up a hill when it was still dark out.

"Come on!" Sadie yelled, "It's almost time!"

Lars grunted in response.

Sadie ran back down the hill, grabbed Lars by the arm and dragged him up the hill. "Ta da!"

"Oh wow." Lars said sarcastically. "Absolutely nothing. I've been waiting my whole life to see this."

"Just wait a second." Sadie said.

"Oh so first you're telling me to hurry up and now you're telling me to wait..." Lars trailed off.

The sun slowly rose over the horizon, painting the city in pink and red.

"Wow." Lars said, accidently being impressed.

"Pretty cool huh." Sadie said.

"Yeah." Lars said. It was actually pretty cool. The only thing wrong was the cramp in his side.

"So." Sadie said nervously. "There's this play in town, and I got two tickets, and I was um, wondering if, um..."

"Yeah?" Lars asked, rubbing his side. The cramp was getting really bad.

"I was wondering if you would want to go with me." Sadie said.

"That sounds, ow, great." Lars said. Did cramps normally get this bad?

Sadie smiled and clapped her hands. "It's going to be great!" She cried, going off on some tangent about some actor.

Lars groaned and doubled over. Did she not see how much pain he was in? The cramp was blinding him with pain...

Lar's eyes snapped open. He was back on the table with a large tube jammed into his side.

"Subject is stabilized." the gem said. "Preparing for extraction."

"No..." Lars croaked.

"Prepare test subjects." the gem continued, mashing buttons on a keyboard. "Beginning extraction...now."

The pain in Lar's side multiplied. Blood came whooshing down the tube from his side. Lars screamed and writhed.

He couldn't take the pain much longer, he was going to die.

Suddenly it all went dark.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Lars asked.

"Nope!" Steven said cheerfully.

Lars sighed. This was a dumb idea. What had posessed him to let the kid blindfold him and drag him somewhere?

"Ow!" Lars yelled as he hit his head on a tree.

"Sorry!" Steven said as he guided Lars down the streets of beach city.

"Where are we going?" Lars asked for the twentieth time.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise!" Steven sang.

"I hate surprises." Lars grumbled.

"I bet you'll like this one!" Steve said, leading Lars across the street. Lars tripped over the curb and almost face planted.

"I bet I won't like it."

Lars allowed Steven to lead him for another five minutes.

"Ok, enough's enough." Lars said, yanking his arm out of Steven's grasp. "Where are we?" He yanked off the blindfold. They were standing in front of the movie theater.

"SURPRISE!" Steven yelled.

"Huh?" Lars asked.

"Sadie said you were always in the break room watching movies about space! Steven said. "So I thought I'd bring you to this new movie! It's about a guy who gets trapped in space who has to escape from aliens who are trying to enslave him!"

"Are you kidding me?" Lars asked. "That movie sounds like crap! So unrealistic! I wouldn't watch it if you paid me."

Steven waved a handful of money around. "I brought money for snacks!"

"No." Lars said. "What if someone sees me going to this childish movie!"

"Hey Steven!" a voice called. Lars froze. As he turned around his worst fears were confirmed. The cool kids were standing behind them.

"Hi Buck!" Steven called. "We're here to watch the new space movie!"

"Far out." Buck responded. "Literally. Hey Lars, are you here to see it too?"

Steven opened his mouth probably to say some sort of cheerful crap about best friends but Lars cut him off.

"No way! This stuff is for babies. I hate it."

"That's too bad." Buck said. "We were thinking of seeing it. Steven, is it cool if we sit with you?"

"Yeah but-" Steven started.

"Have fun Steven." Lars said as he walked away. Steven had seemed so sad, like he would rather hang out with Lars then the cool kids.

As if.

As Lars walked away he became aware of a pain in his side. He wasn't even walking that fast, why was he getting a cramp...

Lars' eyes flew open. There were red warning signs flashing all around. Lars felt dizzy and sick.

"There was a slight miscalculation." the gem was saying. "I believe we have extracted too much from the host. His organs are failing.

Lars groaned and closed his eyes. So he was dying for real this time. He had honestly hoped he would die on Earth. He only wished he could have seen it one more time.

It was too bright and loud in the room he was in. The beeping was cutting into his skull. He just wanted it to end.

As soon as the thought left his mind, it all went dark, silent and calm.

Five year old Lars looked out at the ocean. He had been told to never turn his back on it, as the ocean could be unpredictable.

It was kind of pretty, Lars thought. He liked watching the waves rolling across the shore. It was honestly pretty satisfying.

It seemed like the ocean was too pretty to be dangerous.

That day Lars was feeling braver then usual. He wanted to go down to the ocean. Touch it, play in it.

As he kicked off his sandels he could hear his father's warnings in his head. Never turn your back on the ocean.

The ocean looked peaceful normally, and it didn't look like it could hurt anything.

A little red crab scuttled into the ocean and disappeared. See? The crab was fine. Lars had nothing to worry about.

As Lars took his first steps into the ocean, he couldn't stop thinking about how weird it felt. The sand felt like it was slipping away under his toes, dragging him out to sea.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...until Lars really did fall forward.

He lost his balence and toppled into the waves. Being five years old and unable to swim Lars quickly learned the unforgiving side of the ocean. He was thrown through the waves and dragged out and shoved back in.

When he finally washed up on the shore, sore and exhausted, five year old Lars made a startling discovery about the world.

Everything sucked.

Now whenever he went to the beach, all he could think about is how the ocean almost killed him.

Lars reached down to pick up a shell. He pressed it to his ear. It sounded like...beeping?

Lars slowly opened his eyes. He was in a different room now, one that was nice and dark. He was no longer strapped to a table, but the sheets around him felt like sand paper.

Lars felt weak. That was all. He felt like everything he'd ever had in him had been drained out of him.

Lars rolled over to stare at the wall. It stared back.

Lars jolted back with a yelp. Another human was staring back at him.

"Hello?" he hissed. "Are you a prisoner too?"

No response. A cold feeling filled Lars' stomach the person was dead.

Lars sat up and looked around. The room was full of them, cold dead corpses. Had yellow diamond gone to earth and captured them? Were they part of the human zoo?

Lars felt more helpless than ever as he felt the tears start to slide down his face. He was going to die here alone. He would never see any of the people he cared for ever again.

The door flew open with a smash.

Lars jumped back and covered his eyes as the light tourtured them. A glowing figure moved towards him. An angel? A green angel?

Emerald. Her eye locked on Lars. "Thank god you're alive!" she said. "We need to get you out of here, your crew and the incinerator are ready, come on! You have no idea what you've started!"

Lars blinked slowly. Emerald really was an angel. Dangerous, beautiful, Lars had been blind.

"You're like the ocean." Lars said woozily.

Emerald stared at him. "What did they do to you?"

"The ocean." Lars said again.

Emerald sighed. "You can thank me later." She threw Lars over her shoulder and carried him out into the dazzling light.


	14. Chapter 14

As Lars was dragged away Emerald was brought to Yellow Diamond. It wasn't a pleasant trip. The amethyst that were escorting her made a point to shove and throw her against as many walls as possible.

By the time Emerald reached Yellow Diamond's palanquin she was battered and bruised.

"Well if it isn't our precious Emerald." Yellow Diamond sneered as Emerald was dropped at her feet. "The one who was charged with getting her precious ship back. But which do you care more for? The ship or the captain?"

Emerald knew the question was meant to shake her up, but she couldn't help blushing. With shame or elation she wasn't sure.

"So it happens again." Yellow Diamond sneered. "A gem falls for a human. But this time it won't be a diamond shattering. Not all stories can have happy endings."

Emerald felt the rage rise up inside her. Within a second she made the choice that would alter the rest of her life.

"If I could shatter any diamond." Emerald said, raising her head to look at yellow diamond. "I would shatter you and not stop until your gem was ground into a million pieces."

Yellow Diamond rose to her full height, a furious expression on her face. "HOW DARE YOU!" She shrieked.

Emerald's first thought was to run. Just run. Run far away and hide from this picture of ferocity.

Her second thought was the realization that she couldn't exactly run anywhere as there were guards all around her.

Her third thought was that even if she could run, she wouldn't. This was the choice she made. The choice to fight the diamonds, their tyranny and the order of the gem world.

She chose Lars.

Yellow Diamond could hardly believe that an emerald would dare stand up to her. She had been far too easy on this one.

"I really thought you were better then this." Yellow diamond said, regaining her calm. "I thought you were a gem worthy of having around. A gem that was perfect. However I was wrong." Yellow diamond leaned forward slightly to look Emerald in the eye.

"You. Are. Flawed." Yellow diamond said slowly and deliberately.

Yellow Diamond could see the words resign within Emerald. Surely this would break her. She had lost everything she had cared about. But then something happened that Yellow Diamond didn't expect.

Emerald's eye gained a new look. A stronger look, a rebellious look. This was not the look of a gem that had been broken.

"If I'm flawed." Emerald said, staring into Yellow Diamond's eyes. "Then you're flawed too. Even more then I am."

"TAKE HER AWAY!" Yellow Diamond screamed. "SHATTER HER!"

Long after Emerald was taken away, Yellow Diamond remained in her palanquin looking out into space. These rebels were getting more and more dangerous. Had Emerald been in contact with the Rose Quartz fusion the whole time? Who else was on the rebel's side in her court? Was anywhere safe anymore? Was there a solution?

There was one. Shatter every gem in existence. Then start over. It would take a lot of work but the colonies would be cleansed. But then what? Would rebels corrupt more gems? If they did the diamonds would have to start all over again. And again. And again.

It was a never ending cycle.

Could it ever really be stopped, Yellow Diamond wondered. There had to be a better way to squash the rebellion. There had to be a way to win it all without working too hard.

One step at a time. She had to take things one step at a time.

"Pearl." Yellow Diamond said. Yellow Pearl snapped to attention."

"Yes my diamond?"

"We have the samples we need. Go tell the lab to begin the tests."

"Yes my diamond." Yellow Pearl said, exiting the room.

Yellow Diamond watched her go. One step at a time.

So this is what it was like to be shattered, Emerald thought. Lots and lots of waiting.

Emerald had been sitting in a small cramped chamber for a while now. Apparently there were more important things going on then shattering her, so she was waiting for her doom.

The worst thing about this wasn't the cramped space or the long wait, it was knowing that her end was coming and that she could do nothing about it.

This was all her fault wasn't it. Emerald had only wanted her ship back. This was when everything was so small and unimportant. What was one ship compared to the lives of thousands of gems who had fallen to take the diamonds out of power?

Emerald couldn't believe she had been so blind. Her eyes were open now.

If she could go back to the day the off colors had first stolen her ship with this new knowledge, she would have let them have the ship. She might have even showed them the fastest route to earth.

She might have done that if she hadn't been so stupid.

Lars had known what was right from the start. Instead of caring about which gem was the purest, or most perfect, Lars had valued gems for their personalities and skills. He had found gems who would stay by his side. Lars wouldn't trade these gems in for newer shiner models.

Lars had also seen the Diamonds for the tyrants they were. Whether this was due to Rose Quartz or meeting his crew Emerald didn't know, but Lars' eyes had been opened long before hers and Lars had seen everything much clearer.

Now that Emerald was in this tiny cramped area she had time to think. All her life she had one purpose. To be perfect. She could only serve the diamonds if she was perfect, she could only command armies if she was perfect and she had thought she had to be perfect if she was going to be happy.

Becoming ad admiral was one of the greatest achievements of Emerald's life, probably the greatest. She had never been prouder when she was awarded the title. The hours spent in the sun incinerator taking down enemies were some of the best in her life. Once she had been fierce, and then she was ridiculed by rebels, sided with rebels, and was now going to be shattered.

So this was where it ended.

Emerald sat up. No, this was not where it ended. She was freaking admiral Emerald, one of the most powerful gems in existence. It was not going to end here.

Emerald stood up and began to examine her cell from all sides. There had to be some way out. Emerald finally found something resembling a panel on the wall. After a moment of clawing and scratching at the wall she managed to rip it off, revealing a control panel.

A control panel. That was how her life started going downhill, when Lars shoved her gem into one. This time Emerald stuck her hand into the panel and ripped out several wires.

The cell walls flickered then disappeared. It seemed that the gray, closed off chamber was only an illusion. Emerald was now surrounded by the electric bars of gem prisons and was in the middle of a wide hall. Several other gray blocks were around her.

"Hello?" Emerald called.

"Hello?" A small voice said. It was one of the off colors. The smaller fusion.

"Is the rest of your crew here?" Emerald asked.

"Yes." Said the fusion in a scared tone.

"We're going to get you out of here." Emerald said. She looked at the bars. There appeared to be one way out, and that way looked very painful.

Emerald took a deep breath and shoved herself through the bars. There was a scream and everything went black.

A few minutes later she reformed. The bars had forced her to retreat inside of her gem momentarily, but her plan had worked. She was out. Emerald ran to a panel on the wall and pressed several buttons. The gray blocks disappeared and the electronic bars faded revealing Lars' crew.

"Emerald?" The fusion asked.

"Hello?" Said the orange sapphire.

"Go to your ship. It's in the docking bay upstairs. There won't be any guards for five minutes. Hurry!" Emerald said.

"Why are you doing this?" Half of a two headed gem said.

"Because this is what I should have done a long time ago. Meet me at the starboard side of the fortress. I'm going to get your captain."

Before any of the gems could protest Emerald used a panel to open a door, and disappeared inside.

"My Diamond." Yellow Pearl said, entering the room. She seemed flustered.

"What is it?" Yellow Diamond asked with a bored tone.

"There was a slight error with the project. They're out of control!" Yellow Pearl wailed. "We've ended gemkind for sure!"

"What is it?" Yellow Diamond said. This had caught her attention now.

"The humans that were injected. They...they're too strong. They're crazy! They're made and they're coming for us!" Yellow Pearl screamed! "We have to leave now!"

"No." Yellow Diamond said. "I want to see how this plays out."

Yellow Pearl was pacing back and forth muttering to herself. She didn't deserve this! She was going to die!

Yellow Diamond ignored her frantic pearl. This was the moment of truth. Could the war be won through gem technology or no.

It had taken a while but Emerald had finally found the right door. She pressed her ear to it, listening. She could hear whimpering, like something in pain. Lars had to be in here.

Emerald stood up and took a step back. Then she kicked down the door. It smashed to the ground.

The room was dark and silent now. There were forms laying on the table. Emerald's heart stopped. Dead humans.

The she saw him. Lars was laying on a table, weak, but breathing.

Her eye locked on Lars. "Thank god you're alive!" she said. "We need to get you out of here, your crew and the incinerator are ready, come on! You have no idea what you've started!"

Lars looked up at her dizzily. "You're like the ocean." He slurred.

Emerald stared at him. "What did they do to you?"

"The ocean." Lars said again.

Emerald sighed. "You can thank me later." She threw Lars over her shoulder and carried him out into the dazzling light.

 **A/N: Ok guys, I'm gonna be real here. I was totally going to abandon this story. I have no idea why, I was just going to, until...I GOT A BUNCH OF SUPER AWESOME REVEIWS THAT GAVE ME THE STRENGTH OR WHATNOT TO KEEP GOING!**

 **I reread my story after I got those and wrote a new chapter. I'm back for good and intend to finish this story, so congrats guys, you saved this story!**

 **And one more thing before i go, this is crossposted on Archive of our own, which means that you all should go on there right now and give this story a kudos! My user there is Livitup and the story has the same title and stuff.**

 **Anyways, that's it, have a fabulous day and thanks so much for not giving up on this story!**


	15. Chapter 15

Emerald heroically dragged Lars through the hallways while Lars not-so-heroically stumbled behind her.

As they rounded the corners Lars could hear a strange screaming noise.

"What is that?" He asked.

"Not important, just focus on getting out of here." Emerald said. She flinched when she heard the screams. Lars got the feeling that information was being held back from him. He wasn't a big fan of this feeling.

Lars tripped for the 85th time and crashed to the ground. Everything hurt. He was ok with just laying here forever. Who needed earth? Not Lars. He was content laying here on this cold floor.

Emerald slapped Lars across the face.

"OW!" Lars screamed as his nerves sang.

"Stay focused." Emerald commanded. "We don't have much time. I hope your crew is in position by now.

"You'd better be coming with us this time" Lars said firmly.

"What?" Emerald asked.

"You heard me. I'm not leaving you here again." Lars said.

"It's probably better if you leave without me. The extra weight will only slow you down-"

"You're coming." Lars said firmly. That shut Emerald up and she looked at the ground blushing. She wasn't used to taking orders like this.

As the two neared a stairwell the shrieking cries grew to howls. They could also hear a faint banging and scraping.

"Ok, no more secrets." Lars said. 'What the heck is that?"

Emerald looked at Lars then back at the stairs. "I'm not so sure you want to know."

"Tell me." Lars said, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Fine" Emerald said, dancing out of his grasp. "And don't touch me. I might be saving your life but you're still an off color."

Lars sighed. Some things never changed.

"The screaming things, well...they came from you."

Lars pictured a couple thousand screaming kids. "Wait what?"

"When Yellow Diamond took samples from you she injected them into deseased humans from the zoo. She was trying to create an invincible army." Emerald said.

"Oh no." Lars groaned. He could see where this was going.

"I don't think whatever strange power brought you back was meant to be used on things that had been dead a long time." Emerald said. "I overheard Yellow Pearl freaking out on my way here. Apparently those things are insane and try to kill whatever moves on sight."

Lars groaned again. First his life was a scifi movie, and now it had become a horror movie.

Lars had never been a fan of zombie were always too cheesey or had terrible effects. Sadie had always loved to talk about zombie invasions, like who wouldsurvive and how the citizens could survive.

Lars would never tell anyone, but those discussions always freaked him out. He had several reacurring nightmares of zombie cool kids trying to eat him after those little talks.

"So there are a bunch of zombies." Lars said. "Great. I mean I guess if they're trapped somewhere they can't get us right? And we're almost there-"

Before Lars finished speaking an alarm blared and bars slammed down on all of the doors. The lights dimmed and it was silent, excet for a slow scraping noise that slowly got louder.

"I just had to jinx it didn't I." Lars said slowly.

Yellow Pearl was hiding behind Yellow Diamond's throne trying to find the courage to watch what was going on.

Yellow Diamond's master plan was to release the injected humans into the same area as the pirate and traitor. They would take care of that problem while Yellow Diamond gathered the rest of the samples and went to a different colony to try the test on some other humans.

The colony they were in would be rigged to explode wiping out the rest of the injected.

It was all to perfect, Yellow Diamond had said.

It was all too horrifying for Yellow Pearl. Pearl had seen enough of those pink nightmares for a lifetime. She had watched them rip apart several gems in their thirst for blood.

This was a horrible plan as far as Yellow Pearl was concearned.

"Pearl." Yellow Diamond boomed. "I need you to do one last thing before we leave."

Pearl jumped up. Leave! They could leave and never return to this horror story.

"I need you to plant the explosives somewhere out there. Watch out for the injected." Yellow Diamond said, placing a large amount f explosives near Yellow Pearl.

The happiness Yellow Paerl had felt faded in an instand. Go out there? With those things?

Yellow Diamond pushed her out into the dark hallway and closed the door behind her.

Yellow Pearl stared into the darkness shivering.

She was probably going to die.

Lars stood perfectly still as the scraping noise slowly grew louder. He didn't feel much like a captain now. He felt like the last time he had hung out with Steven. Completely terrified but intruiged.

Alongside the scraping there was a low moaning. Not zombie-like groaning but a low moan of pain. Of something that wanted to die.

"Get ready." Emerald said. "It's no good trying to fight them. I don't think you can kill them."

"Great." Lars said.

The scraping slowly grew louder then...stopped.

Lars peered curiously at the corner.

A small girl appeared. She was shorter then Steven and had pink skin like Lars. Maybe...maybe Yellow Diamond had created humans like him.

"Lars no!" Emerald hissed as Lars approached the girl.

"Hi." Lars said. "Can you talk? I think you might be like me."

The girl slowly started to walk towards him. Lars froze. Her legs were decaying and the bone was visable.

The girl flung herself at Lars with a scream, baring sharp fangs.

"AAAAAAGH!" Lars yelled. Emerald shoved the girl away and dragged Lars towards the stairwell.

Now Lars could see large groups of decaying pink humans, all moaning. As terrifying as they were, Lars felt sorry for them. They truely sounded like they wanted to die.

"MOVE CAPTAIN!" Emerald yelled, shoving Lars through the door and slamming it shut. The decaying humans moaned and scratched at the door, but they couldn't seem to figure out how to get in.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god." Lars said. He was breathing quickly and felt like he was hypervenilating.

"Relax." Emerald growled. "We're almost there."

"Waaaaaaait." Lars said. "You called me captain."

"No I didn't." Emerald said huffily.

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

"Yes. You. Did." Lars sang. Emerald sighed and stomped off.

"Wait don't leave me here!" Lars wailed.

Yellow Pearl dragged herself back into the palaquin. She was shaking. She probably had gem PTSD or something. She hadn't actually seen the monsters but they could have been watching her in the dark...

Yellow Pearl collapsed on the floor shaking. At least she had completed her mission.

"Pearl, welcome back." Yellow Diamond said coldy. "It's about time."

"I..I'm sorry for being late my diamond." Yellow Pearl said, crawling out of her fetal position and bowing shakily.

"Sadly I don't have time to lecture you on insolence." Yellow Diamond said. "Those explosives you rigged are set to go off in seven minutes." The palaquin began to shake, beginning to take off.

Yellow Pearl scrambled for a safe seat. There really wasn't a safe day in her job was there?

Lars and Emerald ran up the stairs. Well, Emerald ran up the stairs. Lars wheezed and stumbled up the stairs. Even with his advanced stamina there were only so many stairs he could take.

"Come on!" Emerald demanded.

"I'm trying!"

The two were nearing the top of the staircase as the building began to rattle.

"What the!" Lars yelled as he lost his balence.

"A ship is taking off!" Emerald yelled. "It's too big to be an incinerator! I think it's Yellow Diamond!"

At that Lars attatched himself to the railing and began to drag himself up it like an inch worm. Emerald stared at him.

"What! I'm trying not to die!"

Emerald shrugged and continued up the stairs.

388 stairs later Lars and Emerald finally reached the top.

"There." Emerald said, throwing open the door. The door lead to a landing pad. And on the landing pad was...

"THE INCINERATOR!" Lars cried, tears of joy springing into his eyes.

"CAPTAIN!" The off colors screamed back. The door lowered and Lars stepped towards the ship. "Ladies first." He offered.

Emerald rolled her eyes but stepped onto the ship. It took a lot of self restraint to keep from hugging one of the chairs. Reunited at last!

"Rutiles, take us out!" Lars commanded. The rutiles shot him a thumbs up and the Incinerator sped into the sky.

"Are you ok? What happened? Was it scary!" Rhodonite asked, waving her arms around. Emerald stared at her. Lars just chuckled. He was used to her by now.

"Let's just say I'm never watching another zombie movie again." Lars said, leaning back in his chair. It was the perfect ending...

A huge explosion sounded and the incinerator shot forward.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!" Rhodonite yelled.

"We lost the engines!" one rutile cried.

"We're going down!" Cried the other.

Lars screamed and held onto his chair as the incinerator spiraled towards an unknown planet.

Yellow Peal looked out the nearest window at the firey explosion. "Are you sure it was wise to destroy such a large base?"

Yellow Diamond eyed her pearl. "It was irrelevent. We have all the samples we need and the creatures had overrun the testing area. It was a necessary move."

"And what about the off colors?"

"We have more pressing issues." Yellow Diamond said. "But for certain they have not seen the last of our little expiriments."


	16. Chapter 16

Lars would love to say that he had gone down bravely with his ship, had remained perfectly calm until the end. He would be the voice of reason.

In reality the only thing Lars' voice was doing was dying, because he had been screaming at the top of his lungs for about seven minutes now.

Sirens were blaring and gems were falling everywhere. Lars himself was spiraling through the air as he screamed like a six year old girl.

Emerald was not one to spiral through the air helplessly. This was her ship for crying out loud! This was her domain and no explosion was taking her down.

Emerald kicked off a wall and managed to attatch herself to the dashboard. Perfect. Now if only she could reach the lever...

Suddenly the ship flipped over again sending the gems slamming into the ceiling.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH" Lars howled

Emerald eyed the button that would change the ship's gravity. She only had one shot at this.

She kicked Lars as hard as she could, sending him flying face first into the button.

All of a sudden the gems dropped to the ground. They were safe.

"We're going to need to make an emergency landing" Lars said, rubbing his face.

"We almost hit the nearest planet. Should we land there?" A rutile asked.

"Sure." Lars said. "We can do repairs there."

"You're welcome for saving your lives and all" Emerald said huffily. When she wasn't acknowledged she stalked to the back of the ship, sulking.

After a sucessful landing, the off colors found themselves on a snow covered planet.

"This looks like a ski resort" Lars said.

Emerald watched as Lars described this "Ski resort" thing to the other gems. She still couldn't understand why Lars of all people was a captain.

"Alright." Lars said, after finishing his explanation. "Flourite, where are we at with engines?"

Maybe Lars was alright at the whole commanding thing. He seemed to know how to take care of the ship.

"Emmy and I will go get supplies." Lars said, after he had finished handing out orders.

Emerald looked up. "Don't call me that."

Lars shrugged her comment off and started walking into the snowy wilderness.

Emerald looked to the other off colors for help, but they were all busy doing their own tasks. With a heavy sigh Emerald ran after Lars, into the unknown.

"And what kind of supplies do you think we'll find out here?" Emerald asked.

"You never know. An abandoned colony has a lot of good stuff."

"Trust me, none of the diamonds would build one here." Emerald said.

"You never know."

"Actually, I do know." Emerald said angrily. "Did you serve under the diamonds? No, no you did not."

Sadly, it turned out Emerald was right. After hours of walking, the duo hadn't found anything remotely useful.

"Guess we might be stuck here a while." Lars said.

"You do know the Incinerator has a back up fuel store."

"It does?"

"You've never notcied the reserves?" Emerald asked in surprise. The she snorted. Some captain you are."

Lars shot her a dirty look. "We're still alive aren't we?"

"I guess." Emerald said. "But for how much longer? We're high on the diamonds hit list. How long do you think we can out run them?"

"As long as I have to." Lars said. "I promised everyone I'd get them to Earth.

"What's the big deal about Earth anyways?" Emerald asked. "It seems like just another planet to me."

"Well it's not." Lars said. "It's so much more then that."

"Do explain." Emerald said, shoving a snowy branch out of her face.

"On Earth, you can be whatever you want. Whoever you want. Earth's all about free choice, and living the way you want to."

"Free...choice." Emerald tried the words out. It sounded horrible. Who was she without orders? How would she know what to do without orders?

"You seem unsure." Lars said, rubbing snow out of his eyes. "Want me to give you an example."

"Yes." Emerald said.

"Ok." Lars said. "What's one thing you've always wanted to do but couldn't because of your status?"

"Rule a planet." Emerald said happily.

"Aside from that." Lars said.

"Have an army of slave humans."

"Or that."

"This planet doesn't seem very free." Emerald growled.

"Well there are some rules!" Lars said. "You know what, it might be easier to show you when we get there."

"I can't wait." Emerald said sarcastically.

The two walked for a while longer until they couldn't see two feet in front of them.

"We might need to wait this out!" Lars yelled, above the howling of the wind.

"WHAT?" Emerald yelled back.

"WE NEED TO...forget it." Lars sighed as he dragged Emerald into a nearby cave that was carved into one of the sides of the snowy mountains.

"I don't even want to know what lives in here." Emerald sighed.

"Probably nothing. Let's just hope its a cave penguin just in case."

"What's a penguin?" Emerald asked.

"Tell you what." Lars said. "When we get to earth, I'll show you a penguin. You'll like them."

"If you say so." Emerald said grumpily.

The two lapsed into an awkward silence. Lars suddenly became aware how close he and Emerald were sitting.

"It was really cool." he said. "What you did back there. Saving all our lives"

"About time I get some appreciation." Emerald said, not meeting his eyes.

"I mean it." Lars said. "Thanks."

"Your welcome." Emerald said. "is your face ok?"

"What? Yeah. It's as handsome as ever!" Lars cheered.

Emerald stared at him.

"Joke. That was a joke." Lars said, letting his head fall onto his hands. The cave was plunged back into silence.

Suddenly Emerald burst out laughing. Lars stared at her before laughing too.

"Wait...what are we laughing at?" Lars asked.

"You." Emerald said, regaining her composure. "And that fact that you think you're handsome."

"I am! That was mean!" Lars yelled.

"You're not handsome." Emerald said with a small smirk on her face. "You're adorable."

"So are you!" Lars said defensively.

"Wrong! I am majestic!" Emerald said, crossing her arms.

The two broke out laughing aagin. Lars leaned back against the cave wall, wiping tears from his eyes. It looked like they might be in here a while, the snow didn't show any signs of stopping.

But that was ok.


	17. Chapter 17

It was getting cold.

Like really really cold. Like Lars was no longer ok cold.

Emerald didn't seem affected by the drop in temperature. She was leaning against the cave wall as calm as ever. It wasn't fair, Lars thought as he pulled his cape tighter around him.

He started thinking warm thoughts. Cookies, ovens, campfire, smores...this wasn't working. This was just making him hungry.

He leaned back against the (freezing) cave wall and tried counting the droplets of water gathering on the ceiling. The cold, cold droplets...

"H-HOW ARE YOU NOT COLD!" Lars finally yelled. It took most of the remaining energy he had. He collapsed against the cave wall shivering violently.

Emerald looked over towards him. Being a gem she was perfectly cold-resistant and hadn't realized Lars' discomfort. "What the heck's wrong with you?" She asked, poking him lightly.

"Hypothermia." Lars growled, trying to wrap himself even tighter in his cape.

"I don't know what that is. You're going to have to be more specific." Emerald said lazily.

"I'M FREEZING!" Lars yowled.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh." Emerald said. "Humans can die from extreme temperatures that's right."

If Lars wasn't so cold he would have shaken his head. Honestly if he weren't a zombie he probably would be dead by now. In a way he was lucky...ish.

Emerald watched Lars for a minute. It still struck her as interesting how life forms could be so helpless.

Lars could feel Emerald watching him. He just wished she'd do something already. Was she really just going to watch him suffer-

Lars let out a yelp of surprise as Emerald pulled him into her arms. He looked up at her in surprise.

"We're never speaking of this." Emerald said, pulling Lars close to her so that she was warming him.

"Deal." Lars said, unsure of what else to say or do.

Time seemed to pass much faster now that he wasn't freezing. As much as Lars wanted to snuggle against Emerald he was a little scared to, she was a magical warrior-lady after all. Emerald seemed to realize what he wanted and let him relax against her.

"Stop laying there like a stick." Emerald said. "It's weird. I'm not going to hurt you."

"That's not what you would have said last week."

"Well a lot has happened since last week so relax or else!" Emerald commanded.

"Apparently not much has changed." Lars sighed, but he relaxed.

In reality a lot of things had changed. More then Lars would care to acknowledge. His simple mission to get back to Earth had gotten so much more complicated in a span of a few days. And Emerald. Her classic villain role had reversed completely. Now she was on their side. It would maybe take some time to get her on the same level as the other off colors, but Lars was ok with this turn of events.

Very very ok. Almost too ok.

Lars was slightly uncomfortable with how ok he was with this. He had realized that deep down he had wanted to have Emerald on their team, and constantly had looked forward to their meetings. He really shouldn't of. She was his enemy, and wanted to kill him, and there was Sadie, but somehow he still had.

He had always found Emerald pretty damn impressive. She was this amazing beautiful strong alien thingy straight out of the comics Lars had fanboyed over back on earth. They had been through a lot together too. Almost dying several times with someone made some sort of weird bond.

Emerald had also sacrificed everything for him and the off colors. Maybe part of her cared for Lars as much as he cared for her. He certainly hoped so.

The snow continued to fall silently as Lars struggled to find something to say. Emerald clearly wasn't talking so Lars took it upon himself to break the ice.

"So...some weather we're having huh."

Emerald stared down at him. "You really are just realizing that now? Maybe the cold damaged your pathetic little human brain more then I thought."

"Hey!" Lars protested. He tried to move his arms but was wrapped up in a cape-cocoon. "I feel like a burrito."

"A what?" Emerald asked.

Lars went into great detail explaining burritos. "So there's the shell, it's all warm, and then there's the cheese and meat, they both come from cows, not gonna explain how, it's kind of a food turn off..."

Emerald listened as Lars talked about these great and mighty burritos. The way he spoke about them one would think they were some kind of gods. Maybe they were human food gods. That would make sense.

"Anyways I can't really explain it too well but when we get to earth I'll get you one." Lars said. "I need to make a list of things you need to see and try on earth. Oh man, that's gonna be a long list."

"I'll admit, I am interested in seeing this burrito." Emerald said. In reality she really wasn't sure if one existed. They sounded made up. Too perfect to be real.

Lars realized he was completely relaxed against Emerald. The two of them were having an actual conversation. It was amazing.

"This is nice." Lars said.

"No, this weather is not nice. I'm starting to worry about you." Emerald said.

Why did gems have to take everything so literally! "No I mean this, us talking without trying to kill each other."

Emerald grunted. "I guess it is."

"And now we're agreeing! What is the world coming to!" Lars yelled excitedly.

"Shut up, you're going to cause an avalanche." Emerald said, but she was smiling.

In all honesty, Emerald found the space pirate cute. She didn't know why, she just did. Lars was definitely stupid, but it was a good kind of stupid. He was funny and nice, he was one of the only people to ever treat Emerald consistently kindly.

It was nice that he was nice.

Emerald really didn't know what she expected to get from him. He was a human, and a toucher, and he was pathetic.

But still...

Something about him...

Emerald had been pushing these thoughts away for a long time, they had started when she had first laid eyes on that blasted space pirate. He wasn't like a gem, he was different, and that made him something of interest.

Ever since the toucher scene all that time ago, the idea of Lars and Emerald as a couple had been something of a joke, but Emerald had secretly enjoyed the notions...

No. She couldn't go down that road. It was unthinkable. He was a human and she was an Emerald. It would never work.

But still...

"I think it's starting to die down." Lars said, observing the snow. Emerald nodded. Neither would admit it but they were both a little disappointed this one on one time was ending.

"Alright. Do we start going back?" Emerald asked.

"I guess so." Lars said, untangling himself from his cape burrito.

It was too cold to have much of a conversation. Lars was convinced that his vocal cords were frozen. Emerald still didn't seem bothered by the cold. The unfairness of life, Lars thought as he stepped over a snow bank. These things were up to his knees!

Suddenly the ground gave way beneath him and he sunk into a snow bank.

"GYAAAAAAAAH!" Lars yelled, flailing around. So this was how it ended. Drowning in a snow bank.

Suddenly he was pulled out of the snow. "Are all humans this dramatic?" Emerald asked.

"Yes." Lars said.

Emerald sighed and shifted Lars until she was carrying you bridal style. "Don't get the wrong idea." she said. "I'm not doing this because I care about you, I'd love to stick you in a snowbank and leave you, but I think it's too much work to kill your crew."

"Ok then." Lars said.

"Fine!"

Lars sighed. Where was this going?

When they returned back at the Sun Incinerator the off colors were waiting for them. "There's a fuel reserve." Lars said when Rhodonite eyed his empty hands.

"Ohhhhh." the off colors said together. Emerald rolled her eye.

"Ohhhh." Padparadshca said a minute later.

"Is the sapphire ok?" Emerald asked, eyeing Padparadscha.

"She's fine." Lars said, picking her up and entering the ship. "Off colors lets roll out!"

"So Rhodonite." Lars said, rolling his chair up next to hers. "Let's say I like this gem."

Rhodonite looked towards him. "Where did this come from?"

"Let's say she's tall and majestic." Lars said, not hearing her.

"YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH A DIAMOND!" Rhodonite shrieked.

"NO NO NO!" Lars yelled as the other gems looked towards him. "Smaller. Smaller then a diamond."

"Oh." Rhodonite said. "I still don't understand where this is coming from."

"And let's say." Lars said. "That I might also like someone else but I don't know if she's moved on. And this gem I've spent a lot of time with, but the other girl I've spent more with, and the gem saved my life and-"

"It sounds complicated." Rhodonite said.

Lars sighed. Yes it was.

Padparadscha tried her hardest not to listen to Lars but she was too excited. All she had heard was that Captain Lars was in love with a gem that was small. This had to mean it was her!

Padparadscha had loved captain Lars from the moment she had first seen him. He was brave and strong, and treated the off colors like gems, not trash. It seemed however, Captain Lars was a bit unsure about his feelings. Padparadsha would just have to show him hers first!


End file.
